THE UNITED KINGDOM'S LIABILITY FOR
RESCUING FAILED PMC OPERATIONS
81. PMCs sometimes undertake high risk activities
in unstable circumstances. We asked Denis MacShane whether he
could envisage British armed forces being deployed if a British
based PMC undertook an operation which subsequently went badly
wrong. He replied that it was a "tough question upon which
I would like to reflect," and compared it to situations in
which "the NHS so often has to save botched up operations
of private hospitals."[107]
82. We have some sympathy with the view expressed
in the Diplock Report that "If a man chooses to embark upon
an enterprise that is hazardous to himself we do not think that
the State is for that reason alone entitled to stop him doing
so."[108] It is,
however, possible to envisage circumstances in which some kind
of Government involvement became necessary. The Government needs
to consider when and how it would react to such situations. One
advantage of a tough, contract specific licencing regime, combined
with a mechanism that vetted companies for competence, would be
that it would inhibit the activities of incompetent PMCs and consequently
minimise the likelihood of British forces being pushed into involvement
in risky and expensive rescue operations.
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