Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Lord Thomas of Gresford (Liberal Democrat). It was answered on Thursday, 6 December 2007.

UK-US Mutual Legal Assistance

Question: My Lords, the OECD convention is a convention which we ratified in 1998 for combating the bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions. That requires this country to the fullest extent possible under its laws and relevant treaties and arrangements to provide prompt and effective legal assistance to another party for the purpose of criminal investigations. How is it that this request has been hanging around for six months in the Home Office without being properly replied to? Why has the Home Office objected to the Americans taking evidence from a Mr Peter Gardner who has taken the invoices relating to these transactions over to America for their purposes?

Answer: My Lords, I thought I had already answered the noble Lord’s question. As I said, there are about 5,000 of these requests annually. Some of them are highly complicated and they very often take a very long time to deal with. This one is very complicated. There are a number of issues. The Home Secretary is in the process of giving very detailed consideration to this request and looking at all the ramifications and complications.

Secondary information

Type: Oral question
Reference: 696 c1813
Session: 2007-08
Oral question type: Supplementary
Chamber / Committee: House of Lords chamber
Subjects: Administration of justice Corruption Arms trade International cooperation Military aircraft Serious Fraud Office USA Saudi Arabia BAE Systems
Link: View this Oral question on www.publications.parliament.uk