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During a Public Administration Select Committee meeting held last week Gordon Prentice, MP for Pendle, said he was astonished those accountable for the demise of the mutual insurer had not been severely punished.

Quoting the Financial Ombudsman Service report into Equitable Life, Mr Prentice said the returns submitted by the insurer were inaccurate and misleading.

He said: "I find it astonishing that the taxpayer may be asked to stump up £10bn and no-one is behind bars over this because there is no fraud.

"I just find it astonishing that there is no-one in the dock over this failure. Is it not astonishing that the tax payer is being asked to pay £10bn and we cannot point a finger at anyone.

"The person at Equitable Life who was both the managing director and the appointed actuary, the worst that happened to him, Roy Ranson, was that he was struck off the Institute of Actuaries in 2007, years and years after the event."

During a heated discussion with a panel of expert commentators, which included Sir Howard Davies, former chairman of the FSA, and Tom Winsor, former rail regulator, Professor Lord Philip Norton, former chair of the House of Lords Constitution Committee, and Ian Cowie personal finance editor of the Daily Telegraph, another MP accused the FSA of being no more than "political decoration" due to the regualtory failures of Equitable Life and Northern Rock

Kelvin Hopkins, Labour member for Luton North, asked Sir Howard: "Is the FSA a decorative part of the constitution not an effective part?"

Sir Howard said: "I do not belive it is a decorative part of the constitution and I do not believe people in financial services would consider it to be such."

Mr Hopkins said the FSA should be held accountable as through regulation it effectively gave the public assurances their money was safe in Equitable Life when it was not.

Sir Howard felt Mr Hopkins comments were a "heroic simplification of a complex situation."

During the meeting Julie Morgan, Labour MP for Cardiff North, asked the panel whether the ombudsman's timeframe of compensation being paid to Equitable Life of within two years was feasible.

Both Mr Winsor and Sir Howard said it was a necessity to meet this deadline and it would be unfair to drag out the situation any longer.

Mr Winsor said: "Justice delayed is justice denied."