Parliamentary Scrutiny Of The Aid And Trade Provision

EDM number 1466 in 1993-94, proposed by DN Campbell-Savours on 06/07/1994.

That this House notes with grave dissatisfaction the repeated refusal by Baroness Chalker of Wallasey for the Overseas Development Administration to release information to the honourable Member for Workington concerning the cases when aid and trade provision support has been withdrawn because of human rights abuses since 1979 and the dates on which those restrictions applied; notes that the honourable Member for Workington made two separate requests for the information; notes that the first request eventually elicited an Orwellian response to a different question from the one that had clearly been asked; notes that the second request was denied, in a letter of 30th June 1994, on the basis that to release this information would incur disproportionate cost; notes that proper planning and monitoring of aid and trade provision cannot be possible without ready access to this information and its absence demonstrates either negligent administration or contempt for human rights criteria; notes that honourable Members are not prepared to accept misleading or inadequate responses which owe more to the desire to avoid disproportionate political embarrassment to Ministers than disproportionate cost to the public; and notes that such inadequate responses make a mockery of the alleged policy of open government and expose the attempt to keep the truth hidden from Parliament.

This motion has been signed by a total of 49 MPs.