Memorandum submitted by the Foreign &
Commonwealth Office
OUTSTANDING ISSUES FROM EVIDENCE SESSION
ON 14 MAY 1998
Questions 33-34
I was asked to confirm whether briefing was
provided for Prime Minister's questions on 11 March. I can confirm
that none was.
Question 53
I said that Mr Penfold's reports came back via
a roundabout route through Abuja. I was mistaken: they came to
the FCO by fax and some were then circulated as telegrams, many
of them addressed to Abuja.
Question 62
I wrote to the Committee on 14 May correcting
a point in my evidence on the briefing pack that went to Mr Lloyd
for his debate on 12 March [not printed].
Question 69
The Committee asked for details of the REU meetings
before and after the 18 February meeting.
The REU meeting of 4 February reviewed 64 new
intelligence reports, as well as 23 reports carried over from
the previous REU. The meeting agreed 28 action points, of which
four were for Customs.
The REU meeting on 4 March reviewed 52 new intelligence
reports, as well as 24 carried over from the previous REU. The
meeting agreed 21 action points, of which six were for Customs.
Question 74-76
I was asked to check how often the FCO had referred
to Customs and Excise allegations of breaches of the law on the
export of arms. My separate note to the Committee (see page 26)
on the REU shows how often the FCO has referred to the REU information
related to potential breaches of UK legislation enforcing an arms
embargo. The purpose of raising such matters at the REU is to
ensure that such information is brought to the attention of the
Department or Departments responsible for looking into it. However,
the question was not about the activities of the REU but specifically
about FCO references directly to Customs. To try to identify the
number of such references over a specified period would require
extensive searches of files within a large number of FCO departments
and within Customs and Excise. Nor would such a search necessarily
produce a conclusive response.
Question 139-142
The Secretary of State for Defence has clarified
the position regarding the ECOMOG helicopter, and contacts between
it and HMS Cornwall, in his letter to the Chairman of the House
of Commons Defence Committee dated 15 May [not printed].
Questions 25-30, 40, 84-88, 109-111
Since the Committee's session on 14 May, Sir
Thomas Legg's independent investigation into allegations of Government
involvement in the supply of arms to Sierra Leone has been established.
The further information requested in these questions appears to
fall within Sir Thomas' terms of reference. Sir Thomas has undertaken
to complete his report as quickly as possible, and it would not
be helpful to him now to provide the Committee with piecemeal
details which could, on examination of all the evidence in the
independent investigation, turn out to be incomplete. His report
will of course be published.
| 
