Foreign Affairs CommitteeLetter from the Rt Hon William Hague First Secretary of State, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

Thank you for your letter of 31 July about the attack on the In Amenas gas plant in January this year. Alistair Burt, Minister for the Middle East and North Africa, has discussed many of the issues raised in your letter with several of the bereaved families and survivors in person or by letter. On 24 July, he sent an update to those Members who have contacted the FCO on behalf of affected constituents, which also covered many of these points. I have drawn on that letter here, but would be happy to provide you with a copy of the original as well if that would be helpful.

Coroner’s Inquest and Role of Algerian Authorities

I fully appreciate the families’ frustration at not knowing what happened to their loved ones. I hope the investigation into the attack, which is rightly being led by the Algerian authorities, will ultimately answer their questions. However I should stress that this is a complicated case for any jurisdiction, and a full and proper investigation will inevitably take time to complete.

You raise concerns about lack of co-operation from the Algerian authorities. This is their investigation and, as you rightly note, we cannot interfere in their judicial processes. However, we remain in frequent contact with them and they have assured us that they will share as much information as they can when it is appropriate to do so. Alistair Burt last spoke to the Algerian Foreign Minister about the investigation on 1 July, and the Metropolitan Police investigators have visited Algeria several times, most recently in May. Our Ambassador and his staff in Algiers are in frequent contact with the Algerian investigators and Ministry of Justice, and our Pro Consul speaks to the investigating judge weekly. All in all, I am satisfied that we have good contact with the right people, and are being given as much information as we can expect at an early stage of a complex investigation.

You linked the Algerian investigation to the timing of the Coroner’s inquest, which is, of course, a matter for the Coroner to decide. I understand that, while the continuing Algerian investigation is one factor, there are also other considerations. The investigating team in the Metropolitan Police Counter-Terrorism Command are gathering evidence and witness statements from a number of third country nationals for the Coroner’s inquest. As you will know, nationals of nine states were killed in the attack, and nationals of more countries were involved, therefore this will take time. Furthermore, requests for evidence and statements for the purposes of an inquest do not fall within the scope of Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties, where those apply. Therefore, the investigating team has limited scope to insist on compliance with their requests or set deadlines for response. We are supporting their efforts by urging responses through diplomatic channels where appropriate, but we are ultimately in the hands of the authorities concerned.

Provision of Travel Advice to and by UK Companies

At the time of the In Amenas attack, our Travel Advice for Algeria had warned for some time that terrorists were active in the country and likely to target Western interests. It advised against all but essential travel to areas close to the Libyan border, and extreme vigilance in the area around In Amenas. I enclose a copy of the Advice, as it stood on 16 January, for your information. That information was available to BP (and its employees), as it was to all members of the public, on our website. I do not know whether they read it, or informed their employees of its content. To my knowledge, BP did not ask us for specific advice on the terrorist threat in Algeria, nor did we hold any specific information which would have warranted us contacting them proactively.

The update made to the Algeria Travel Advice two days before the attack was a contextual change, noting that the French intervention in Mali might provoke retaliatory attacks across the region. We made this same change, at the same time, to the Travel Advice for all countries in North and West Africa where there is a terrorist threat. It was not a specific threat to Algeria, and did not change our overall assessment of the level of the threat from terrorism in Algeria.

We will only actively inform organisations or individuals of a threat or Travel Advice change where there is specific information that directly affects them. However, we encourage individuals and organisations to sign up to receive email alerts if they wish to be notified of every change to a particular country’s Travel Advice. We also publicise significant changes on social media and through warden networks.

Industry Engagement

As you have seen from my Written Ministerial Statement, we are working closely with industry to make clear what we can and cannot do for them, and how we will work with them in a crisis. We discussed lessons with BP immediately after In Amenas. Alistair Burt has hosted two roundtable discussions with wider industry representatives to discuss how we can keep each other informed and better co-ordinate our crisis response mechanisms. FCO officials have already participated in two companies’ crisis exercises as part of the follow-up from those discussions. We intend to continue this engagement to ensure we are all better informed of each others’ practices and priorities.

We have also been made aware of the issues affecting contractors, and subcontractors , of main employers. We are continuing to give prominence in our discussions with industry to this point, and the vital importance of sharing information fully.

We are also addressing the perception that Travel Advice is just for tourists. We are encouraging companies to use it to guide their security planning and, especially, to ensure employees and contractors have seen it. We cannot force them to do this, but any individual is, of course, free to check the advice and raise it with their employer if they wish to do so. The contextual information that we will add to Travel Advice will expand on the headline points advising the public on the terrorist threat. It is intended to give more information about where the threat comes from and why we consider it might affect travellers to that country.

We are looking to broaden our efforts to include all organisations employing British Nationals in areas with a high threat of terrorism. As well as the extractive industry, this includes NGOs and media organisations, and covers areas of the Middle East and South Asia, as well as North and West Africa. Our objective is to increase the security of British Nationals working for foreign-based organisations, as well as UK employers, and we are therefore working with G8 partners to develop a coherent international approach.

I hope this letter covers the points you raise in sufficient detail. Alistair Burt and I are, of course, willing to provide any further information we can to assist Committee’s work on this important area.

22 August 2013