§ Mr. Lathamasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will name the 103W country of origin of any middle eastern dipomats who have been required to leave the United Kingdom or whom the police have arrested but not charged because of diplomatic immunity, for alleged serious criminal offences during the current year; and whether the heads of mission of the states in question were requested to insist upon acceptable standards of diplomatic behaviour from their staff in future.
§ Mr. RentonThe answer to the first part of the question is no. It would be inappropriate to name the country of origin or regional group of the alleged offenders, since their guilt has not been established in court.
All heads of mission were made aware last year that we would in future expect and apply more stringent standards in respect of behaviour by the staffs of diplomatic missions. Specific guidance on this has now been issued to all diplomatic missions, as indicated in paragraph 68 of the Government report on "Diplomatic Immunities and Privileges" published on 23 April.