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Fraud
31. Mr. Flynn : To ask the Attorney-General what new proposals he has to reduce crimes of fraud.
The Solicitor-General (Sir Derek Spencer) : The Serious Fraud Office welcomes the proposals in the Criminal Justice Bill to give the courts of England and Wales a wider jurisdiction over international fraud. It will also give its full support to the new machinery to strengthen co-operation between supervisors and other relevant authorities announced by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer last Thursday.
Mr. Flynn : Does the Solicitor-General agree that the greatest crime of fraud perpetrated against the British people was the lies and deception used by the Conservative party at the general election? Now that the Government have lost all respect and authority with the Prime Minister at war with his own party, is it not time that the Government went to the country--and went now?
The Solicitor-General : The Government are concerned to prevent fraud and that is why we have introduced the Serious Fraud Office, the fraud investigation group and the Criminal Justice Bill. That is the answer to the question that the hon. Gentleman should have asked.
Dame Elaine Kellett-Bowman : Will my hon. and learned Friend seek to simplify the trial procedures in fraud cases which currently make it very difficult to secure
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convictions? Many fraud cases collapse after long and expensive trials and that can scarcely be a deterrent to further fraud.The Solicitor-General : Following the result of the Blue Arrow trial in the summer, the Lord Chancellor announced in July that the Government would publish a consultation paper seeking ways to limit the length of such trials and canvassing solutions as to how that should be achieved. I expect that the paper will be produced shortly. However, we do not just have long trials in fraud cases. There are long trials in child abuse cases and in cases of armed robbery. At a recent seminar held by the Bar which I attended, there was virtual unanimity about the fact that legislation is now required in that area and that that was the only solution.
May Inquiry
32. Mr. Mullin : To ask the Attorney-General when he expects Sir John May to complete his inquiry into the Guildford and Woolwich bombings.
The Attorney-General : So as not to prejudice the trial of the Surrey police officers, Sir John May has decided to adopt a modified procedure in order to complete his inquiry into the Guildford and Woolwich bombings in time to report his findings to the Royal Commission on criminal justice of which he is a member. The royal commission is due to report in June 1993.
Mr. Mullin : Is not it the truth that Sir John May's inquiry has been nobbled? Three years have passed since the inquiry was commissioned and he has yet to begin to address the Guildford and Woolwich convictions. Has not his inquiry been nobbled because he was not willing to participate in a whitewash that would preserve the reputations of a number of extremely distinguished people such as the late Lord Havers, Sir Peter Imbert, Mr. Michael Hill QC and others who were involved in achieving those convictions?
The Attorney-General : I do not think that there is any truth in that at all.
Company Fraud
33. Mr. Campbell-Savours : To ask the Attorney-General what is his policy on the prosecution of persons involved in company fraud.
The Attorney-General : It is the policy of both the Serious Fraud Office and the Crown prosecution service, acting through its fraud investigation group and specialist prosecutors in each of its areas, to prosecute company fraud, wherever it is detected, in accordance with the code for Crown prosecutors.
Mr. Campbell-Savours : If Department of Trade and Industry inspectors produce a report indicating actions bordering on fraud or irregularities by prominent Conservatives, surely in those circumstances it is quite improper for the DTI to secure an injunction to prevent Channel 4 from publishing information from those reports in last night's programme "The Greed and the Glory".
The Attorney-General : The hon. Gentleman is muddling two concepts. If there is evidence of wrong-doing of that type by anyone, no matter who he or
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she may be, it should be properly investigated--in such a case, by the Serious Fraud Office. However, the confidentiality of the reports carried out by the DTI is a matter of public interest which is for the courts to decide if an application for an injunction is made.Domestic Violence
34. Mrs. Gorman : To ask the Attorney-General what response he intends to make to the report of the national inter-agency working party on domestic violence.
The Solicitor-General : The report's wide-ranging conclusions and recommendations, represent a valuable and constructive contribution to finding more effective ways of tackling domestic violence.
Mrs. Gorman : Will my hon. and learned Friend join me in welcoming the fact that Kiranjit Ahluwalia, who was subjected to appalling domestic violence and was imprisoned for life, has now been retried and freed? Does he welcome the recent decision of the New Zealand Government to review the laws on provocation so that women, who often retaliate at a later stage after being badly beaten, will have a much better chance of being able to plead manslaughter? Will he also take note of the recent book written by the distinguished woman QC, Helena Kennedy, which points out that the ingrained attitudes of the male-dominated legal profession often lead to women being more severely punished than men for similar crimes?
The Solicitor-General : As my hon. Friend knows, any change to the substantive law is the responsibility of the Home Secretary, but I understand her concern about the matter. In his answer to my hon. Friend on 23 January this year the Home Secretary acknowledged that concern. He said that he believed that the arguments were finely balanced, that before we rushed into change we should be very sure that the changes did not do more harm than good, and that we did not want to introduce changes that would, in fact, sanction revenge killings.
OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENT
Know-how Funds
40. Mr. Mackinlay : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will consider further increasing know-how fund resources to help with problems in the developing world.
The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. Douglas Hurd) : An important part of our aid programme to developingcountries is know-how in the form of training and technical co-operation. We shall continue to treat this form of aid as particularly important.
Mr. Mackinlay : Does the Foreign Secretary understand that many hon. Members will not be satisfied with his reply, bearing in mind that the fragile democracies and economies of central Europe as well as Commonwealth countries are desperate for assistance from western Europe? Will he assure the House that in any review of the Government's budget the know-how funds for both central and eastern Europe and Commonwealth countries will be guaranteed? Will he tell the Heads of Government from Poland and elsewhere at the summit in London this
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week that the United Kingdom will increase its budget this year to assist them in developing, protecting and enhancing their fragile democracies and economies?Mr. Hurd : I am glad that the hon. Gentleman agrees that the British know-how funds in central and eastern Europe have been a marked success. They have succeeded not only because of the substantial sums allotted to them--£36 million last year--but because they are precisely targeted at the aims and objectives of those countries. I am sure that we will discuss this matter at the summit in London on Wednesday. Obviously, I cannot anticipate what funds will be available in the future.
Mr. Cormack : Does my right hon. Friend realise that many Conservative Members do not expect the know-how funds or other parts of the aid budget to be cut and will take a serious view of any such cut?
Mr. Hurd : I note my hon. Friend's remarks. But he will not expect me to anticipate the autumn statement.
Africa
41. Mr. Harry Greenway : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much aid has been given to African countries in each of the last three years ; and if he will make a statement.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. Mark Lennox-Boyd) : Gross bilateral aid flows to Africa were £514 million in 1989 ; £389 million in 1990 ; and £521 million in 1991.
Mr. Greenway : Does my hon. Friend accept that aid to Africa can be good only in developing the enormous resources of that vast and important continent? Is it not essential to ensure that Africa's resources, including food, are developed as a means of discouraging and stopping that appalling carnage and war that have taken place there, causing people to go west and to leave Africa in such large numbers?
Mr. Lennox-Boyd : Aid to Africa will remain a priority for the overseas aid programme. However, economic reform is the key to Africa's sustainable development. In accordance with our aid programme, we are encouraging economic reform in all African countries. The African countries that have taken up reform have prospered more.
Mr. Meacher : Can the Under-Secretary confirm that the Government are planning a 15 per cent. cut in the Overseas Development Administration budget, which amounts to nearly £300 million a year? If so, is that not a denial of common humanity, when there are an unprecedented 40 million people facing death from drought and famine in Africa, who need more help and not less? If the cut is made will it not be the most immoral act yet of a deeply immoral Government, who have already cut the aid budget in half as a share of national income and--perhaps most importantly for this Government--is it not against our interests, when a rising aid budget is the most cost-effective means of increasing demand for Britain's exports, thus creating jobs and growth at home?
Mr. Lennox-Boyd : I confirm no such thing and I reject the hon. Gentleman's allegations. We have a substantial aid programme for Africa--40 per cent. of all British bilateral aid goes to Africa, which is a higher proportion
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than is warranted by its population. As the hon. Gentleman knows, we have the fifth largest aid programme in the world. If he had had his way--the increases that he had demanded in all the Departments that he has shadowed--the country would have been bankrupt long ago.Mr. Jacques Arnold : Does my hon. Friend agree that Britain has done much to assist the African countries with education? Is that not an area in which there is much to be done, and is not this country perhaps the most suited in the world to assist with it?
Mr. Lennox-Boyd : We consider all aspects of a country when deciding what to assist in the aid programme, including education and other aspects, such as economic management, human rights, the rule of law, accountability and transparency of government.
Multilateral Lending Institutions
42. Mr. Denham : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will make a statement on the relief of debt owed by developing countries to multilateral lending institutions.
Mr. Lennox-Boyd : The multilateral lending institutions do not reschedule debt because to do so would threaten their ability to provide new loans to developing countries.
Mr. Denham : Is the Secretary of State aware that, as a result of the policies that he has described, the poverty-stricken countries of sub- Saharan Africa sent back to the International Monetary Fund $2.2 billion more than they received in new loans during the past eight years? Is he also aware that last year the IMF received $400 million more in debt repayments than it paid out in new loans? Does he accept that that is completely unacceptable for poverty-stricken countries, that the policies that he has outlined are not working, and that they are denying poverty- stricken countries the money that they need to recover? Will he pledge the Government to work within the IMF to change the disastrous policies that he has advocated?
Mr. Lennox-Boyd : No. The hon. Gentleman is wrong. While the multilateral institutions do not reschedule debt, there are opportunities whereby the World bank and the IMF make new loan agreements with concessionary terms, which often help those countries. The hon. Gentleman is wrong in his allegation that the developing world paid back more in 1990 than it received in assistance in the form of aid. Under the Trinidad terms, which the hon. Gentleman might well study for his own benefit, aid debt was written off for many countries. Under the accounting procedures that I have explained before to the House, that appears as a write-off, when it is merely a rescheduling and a forgiveness of the debt by the lending country.
Mr. Ottaway : Following my hon. Friend's comments about the Trinidad terms, which were a welcome initiative by the Prime Minister, is there any possibility of extending them?
Mr. Lennox-Boyd : I am grateful to my hon. Friend. So far, eight countries have benefited from the Trinidad terms--six are in Africa, and we have been discussing it this afternoon. The Paris Club is meeting this week and there might be two more beneficiaries by the end of the week
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--Mali and/or Honduras. My hon. Friend is right to point out that my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister initiated the terms, which have been of such benefit to the developing world.Southern Africa
43. Mr. Bayley : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will increase the level of aid allocated to southern Africa in the current year.
44. Mr. Burden : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he intends to review the level of aid allocated to southern Africa in the current year.
Mr. Hurd : Southern Africa must be a high priority for us, particularly because so many countries there need our support for their economic reform programmes and because we must help them cope with the effects of the grievous drought. So we keep our help to that region continuously under review.
Mr. Bayley : The Conservative party manifesto in April said that next year's aid budget, excluding aid for eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, would reach £1,800 million. Will the 1993-94 aid budget in real terms meet that manifesto promise and will the proportion going to southern Africa be the same as in the current financial year?
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Mr. Hurd : As I have said before, I cannot anticipate the results of the public spending review, which is going on now and on which no decisions have so far been taken. We shall continue to have an energetic role in relation to the tragedies in Africa, whether they concern Somalia, dealing with the drought in Zimbabwe, or projects that, for a comparatively modest expenditure, produce enormous benefits to townships in South Africa.
Mr. Burden : Surely the House cannot have too much confidence in such assurances given the Government's track record on overseas aid. It was cut by 27 per cent. in just 11 years so what confidence can we have that the Government will ever reach the agreed target of 0.7 per cent. of gross domestic product devoted to overseas aid? Is it not obscene that the Government should even consider cutting back on overseas aid when a child dies of starvation every 2.4 seconds?
Mr. Hurd : Obviously, the amount that we spend on aid is part of the Government's general public spending programme. That has been so under all Governments. What has happened in the history of this Government is that reductions in the beginning were followed by a substantial expansion, so that in 1991-92 we spent 3 per cent. more in real terms than in the year before. Since 1987-88 the aid programme has risen in real terms--not fallen as the hon. Gentleman suggested--by 8 per cent., which is a substantial increase.
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