MPS demand answers over Carillion deficit

MPS have opened an investigation into the pension deficit of collapsed outsourcer Carillion amid suggestions that concerns were not raised about its business model in the wake of last year’s profit warning.

Frank Field, chairman of the parliamentary work and pensions committee, has written to Lesley Titcomb, the chief executive of the Pensions Regulator, and Robin Ellison, the chairman of Carillion’s pension trustees, asking how both bodies responded when the company made £845m of write downs in July.

The committee will take evidence from company directors, trustees, the regulator and the auditors who “somehow concluded Carillion was a going concern”.

Meanwhile, employees working for Carillion on Network Rail projects were told yesterday that their wages will be guaranteed until at least the middle of April after the track company agreed a deal with liquidators at PWC.