Who exactly is demanding compensation? In short, all with-profits policyholders. There are various groups with different claims. With-profits annuitants have now been transferred to Prudential, but they have a case for saying their transfer value should have been higher. Late joiners can argue they would not have joined after 1999 if they had known the weak position the company was in. Policyholders with guarantees may have seen these unmet. Even dead policyholders have a claim – relatives argue that their estates should receive compensation on their behalf.

How much compensation is being recommended? The report says only that a compensation scheme should be set up to “remedy” financial losses that would not have been suffered had people invested elsewhere. It does not calculate a figure, though it does reproduce an estimate of £4.65bn, which the Equitable Members Action Group says is the amount that has been lost collectively by the 1.5m with-profits policyholders due to maladministration. It is highly unlikely that anything like this would be paid.