a pension and his pension 'pot' amounted to £16 million. When the matter became public in late February 2009, Goodwin defended his decision to refuse to reduce his pension entitlement in a letter to Lord Myners on 26 February, pointing out that on leaving in October 2008 he had given up a contractual 12-month notice period worth around £1.29 million and share options worth around £300,000. In March 2009 Lord Myners revealed that part of the reason Goodwin's pension was so large was that RBS treated him as having joined the pension scheme from age 20 (instead of 40, when he actually joined) and ignored contributions to his pension from previous employment. Stephen Timms, a government finance minister, protested publicly about the matter. He said that it would be referred to the UK Financial Investments Limited. The Chancellor, Alistair Darling, ordered lawyers to explore legal avenues to recover the money, – though the legal options appear to be limited – and Prime Minister Gordon Brown declared that "a very substantial part of it [Goodwin's pension] should be returned." Former deputy PM John Prescott called on the government to withdraw Goodwin's pension and tell Goodwin to "sue if you dare." Liberal Democrats Treasury spokesman Vince Cable said that "What the government could do is say that if the company had gone bust, which it would have had it not been a bank, he would have been entitled to a compassionate payout of £27,000 a year, and if he does not like that he could sue." Cable added that Goodwin "obviously has got no sense of shame." In evidence to the Treasury Select Committee on 3 March 2009 John Kingman, CEO of UK Financial Investments Ltd, the company set up to manage the government's holdings in banks, directly blamed the Royal Bank of Scotland board for awarding its former CEO a discretionary pension. Kingman said that the government was aware of the size of the pension pot in October 2008 (before UKFI was established), but that "what the government was not told was that this payment was in any way discretionary". He accused the RBS board of not sharing material facts with Financial Services Secretary Lord Myners. RBS could have terminated Mr Goodwin's contract as CEO with 12 months' notice, so avoiding the more expensive pension award. Kingman told the committee that UKFI was investigating whether RBS had "full knowledge of the