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BNFL
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will list the stockbrokers consulted by KPMG as part of their work preparing the report into the Public Private Partnership Options for BNFL. [92059]
Mr. Battle: In carrying out their work, KPMG relied on views expressed in confidence by four leading stockbrokers in the belief that those views would remain private to Government. It would be a breach of that confidence to identify them now.
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when he will publish in full the KPMG report into the Public Private Partnership Options for BNFL. [92056]
Mr. Battle: A summary of KPMG's report containing all its key points has been placed in the Libraries of both Houses. The full report constitutes advice to Ministers and contains commercially sensitive information, so it will not be published.
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on the reasons for selling a minority stake in BNFL, rather than a majority stake. [92057]
Mr. Battle: The Atomic Energy Act 1971, which set up BNFL, provides for the sale of up to 49 per cent. of the business. This would enable a Public Private Partnership to be introduced into the company, thereby bringing private sector skills and capital to bear on its commercial decisions.
Bribery Convention
Mr. Colman: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans Her Majesty's Government have to inform United Kingdom companies of the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. [92122]
Mr. Wilson: Negotiation of the OECD Convention was concluded during December 1997. Since then, officials have been informing UK companies of its scope. The scope of the Convention was accommodated within existing UK legislation. Therefore, there are no new obligations for UK companies.
Shipbuilding (Credit)
Miss Begg: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what changes he proposes to make to the Home Shipbuilding Credit Guarantee Scheme. [92465]
Mr. Byers: I am pleased to announce today some significant improvements in Government supported shipbuilding finance under the Home Shipbuilding Credit Guarantee Scheme.
I am delighted to say that these improvements are one of the early outcomes of the Shipbuilding Forum, which I established last summer, to bring together all the major Industry, union and Government representatives to examine ways of improving the competitiveness of the shipbuilding sector. The Government are actively contributing to these outcomes. I believe that these
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improvements, recommended by the Shipbuilding Forum, will put the UK Scheme on a par with the best finance schemes among our EU competitors.
The Scheme, which currently offers soft credit financing support in pounds sterling and at fixed interest rates to help UK yards win new shipbuilding orders, will now be extended to offer support for loans in US dollars and euros and to provide DTI guarantees in support of loans at floating as well as fixed rates. It is moreover our aim that the Scheme should be more flexible in its operation and to this end loans under the Scheme will be considered in a combination of the permitted currencies. The Scheme will also guarantee loans for periods up to 12 years (previously eight and half years) for mobile offshore installations, including floating production storage and offloading vessels.
Floating rate loans will be of particular assistance as it allows shipowners to take advantage of the current low interest rates and make the Scheme more competitive and attractive to all.
Loans in US dollars recognises that shipbuilding is an international business and that the US dollar is the most widely used currency for financing the building of ships. It will bring our UK Scheme in line with other similar EU competitor schemes which already offer loans in US dollars as will the extension to loans in euros.
I am certain that these new financing arrangements, which the Industry have called for, will help strengthen the hand of the UK shipbuilding sector. The Government will continue to give the Industry every encouragement to improve its competitiveness and I look forward to working with the Shipbuilding Forum to ensure that we continue to achieve this aim.
Mr. Cox:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many British military personnel stationed in Cyprus have been charged with drug offences in each of the last three years. [90821]
Mr. Doug Henderson:
No British military personnel stationed in Cyprus have been charged with drug-related offences during the last three years. However, seven Service personnel were administratively discharged in 1997, having failed a compulsory Drug Test (CDT). Since then there have been no CDT failures. Nearly 6,000 people have been tested over the three year period.
Dr. Lynne Jones:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his answer of 30 June 1999, Official Report, column 157, on the Chemical Weapons Convention, under what circumstances depleted uranium may be defined as a chemical weapon for the purposes of the Chemical Weapons Convention. [91763]
Mr. Doug Henderson:
The use of depleted uranium ammunition is not prohibited under any international agreement, including the Geneva Convention, and there are no circumstances under which such ammunition may be defined as a chemical weapon. Article II of the
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Chemical Weapons Convention includes definition of chemical weapons as munitions and devices specifically designed to cause death or other harm through the toxic properties of the chemicals specified. Depleted uranium ammunition is designed to penetrate Main Battle Tank armour, or when used in the Royal Navy's Vulcan Phalanx close-in-weapons-system to penetrate incoming missiles, and so is not defined as a chemical weapon.
Mr. Alan Simpson:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on preparation for the refurbishment that will be required for Trident early in the next decade. [91565]
Mr. George Robertson:
Work to provide upgraded refitting and refuelling facilities at Devonport for Trident submarines is progressing to plan in preparation for the first refit early next century.
Mr. Bennett:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what account he took, in reaching decisions about Suez Canal Zone medals, of Cabinet minute CAB 128 (1951) in the Public Record Office for 29 November 1951. [92041]
Mr. Spellar:
The Minute in question had no bearing on my decision on the claim for a campaign award for operations in the Canal Zone of Egypt in the period 1951-54. It relates solely to the implications of a declaration of Active Service for the control of civilian labour. The matter of Active Service is not the deciding factor as to whether or not any such campaign award is made.
Mr. Jim Cunningham:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what steps he has taken to discourage the deployment of nuclear armaments in space. [91693]
Mr. George Robertson:
The deployment of nuclear armaments in space is prohibited by the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. All the Nuclear Weapon States, and the four states yet to accede to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as non-nuclear-weapon status, Cuba, India, Israel, Pakistan, are members of the Outer Space Treaty.
Mr. Wilshire:
To ask the Attorney-General if he will publish a list of all those official documents of the last Administration which have been seen by (a) him, (b) other Ministers in his Department, (c) special advisers in his Department and (d) non-career civil servants appointed since May 1997 in his Department. [92184]
The Attorney-General:
A large number of official documents were generated during the period of the previous Administration, many of which were published or put in the public domain. Since May 1997, the Law Officers Departments have been guided by the convention governing access to the papers of a previous
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Administration, as set out in the then Prime Minister's reply to a written question on 24 January 1980, Official Report, columns 305-07.
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