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Foreign Office Properties
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list all (a) overseas and (b) UK properties (i) owned by his Department and (ii) leased. [62064]
Mr. Fatchett: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office occupies the following properties in the United Kingdom.
| Owned | Leased |
|---|---|
| Old Admiralty Building, London SW1 | 1 Palace Street, London SW1 |
| Old Public Offices, King Charles Street, London SW1 | Cromwell House, London SW1 |
| 22-24 Whitehall, London SW1 | 4 Matthew Parker Street, London SW1 |
| Hanslope Park, Buckinghamshire | Apollo House, Croydon |
| Creslow, Buckinghamshire (Wireless Station) | 8 Cleveland Row, London SW1 |
| Gawcott, Buckinghamshire (Wireless Station) | 1 Carlton Gardens, London SW1 |
| Poundon, Buckinghamshire (Wireless Station) | 20 Victoria Street, London SW1 |
To provide the information requested on overseas properties would at present involve a disproportionate expenditure of public funds. However, the Department has recently acquired an electronic property data base which will soon be operational. I shall write to the hon. Member shortly with the information requested and shall place copies of the letter int he Libraries of the House.
Mrs. Gillan:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his oral statement of 27 November 1998, Official Report, column 443, if he will list his Department's (a) owned and (b) leased properties that are being sold. [62062]
Mr. Fatchett:
All FCO properties are being reviewed against a set of Key Performance Indicators designed to assess their fitness for purpose, the returns they offer on capital and the costs of alternative provision. Properties proposed for sale include the Ambassador's house in Dublin, the Embassy in Bonn and the former Consulate in Casablanca.
Mrs. Gillan:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representation he has made to Iran concerning (a) the six Baha'is who are under sentence of death, (b) the persecution of members of the Baha'i faith and (c) the recent execution of Mr. Ruhu'llah Rawhani. [62065]
Mr. Fatchett:
We have on many occasions raised with the Iranians our desire for an improvement in their human rights record, not least with regard to the plight of the Baha'i community. An EU Troika of Heads of Mission in Tehran (UK, Austrian Presidency, and Germany) called on the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) on
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4 October to press the Iranian Government on the cases of Mr. Dhabihi-Moqaddam and Mr. Najafbadi, two Iranian Baha'is who had death sentences confirmed at the end of September. They were informed that both men had been convicted for acting against national security, but that the sentences were subject to review by the Supreme Court. Even if the Supreme Court upheld the sentences, that would not necessarily be final. Representatives of a number of other countries have also made similar representations to the Iranians.
We are aware of further arrests of Baha'is in Iran, and continue to look into these. We are determined to impress upon the Iranians the seriousness with which their behaviour is viewed by all EU countries. The plight of the Baha'is formed a prominent part of the EU-sponsored UN human rights resolution on Iran, adopted on 18 November.
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