Brent North MP Barry Gardiner has requested two further inquiries into the Financial Services Authority's (FSA) role in Independent's collapse, after the government ignored his earlier request for an external investigation.
Gardiner, a chartered insurer before becoming a Labour MP, also pledged his support for Insurance Times' Regulation Overhaul Campaign at the broker briefing last week.
The MP has asked the Treasury Select Committee to look at the possibility of strengthening the regulatory regime and requested the Public Accounts Committee consider an audit of the FSA by the National Audit Office. “There are more ways to call for an inquiry than simply to ask the government for it, that is why I have initiated these two alternative routes,” he said.
Gardiner also tabled a second series of parliamentary questions last week, asking the Chancellor if he would establish a scheme to compensate Independent policyholders not covered by the Policyholders' Protection Board (PPB) for losses sustained by them as a result of regulatory failure.
He asked for a duty of care to be imposed on auditors of insurance companies to report to the FSA.
