HC Deb 05 December 1961 vol 650 cc1142-3

The following Questions stood upon the Order Paper:

70. Mr. HIRST

To ask the Lord Privy Seal whether Her Majesty's Government have yet been able to provide for increased interim payments of compensation to British subjects whose property in the United Arab Republic has been Egyptionised or suffered loss or damage while under sequestration.

71. Mr. WALL

TO ask the Lord Privy Seal what increases it is proposed to authorise the Foreign Compensation Commission to make in the interim payments to British subjects whose property in Egypt was Egyptianised or suffered loss or damage while under sequestration.

The Lord Privy Seal (Mr. Edward Heath)

With your permission, Mr. Speaker, and that of the House, I will now answer Questions Nos. 70 and 71 together.

A new Foreign Compensation (Egypt) (Interim Distribution) (Amendment) Order was laid before the House yesterday. Its Schedule sets out the following new scale for the payment of compensation to those claimants whose property was either taken over by the Egyptian Government or suffered loss or damage while under sequestration:

  • 90 per cent. on the first £5,000 of each claim;
  • 60 per cent. on the next £45,000 of each claim;
  • 35 per cent. on the next £450,000 of each claim;
  • 20 per cent. on all amounts over £500,000.

This Order, which supersedes the scale laid down in the Order of 30th November, 1960, comes into force today. The increases for which it provides apply to all claims which can properly be made against the Egyptian Compensation Fund, whether already assessed, or still to be assessed, by the Foreign Compensation Commission.

Mr. Hirst

I thank my right hon. Friend for what he has said, but is he aware that the sum of money appears to be a good deal too small out of the sum available? Can he give any information as to the total payment which this entails on top of the £6 million already paid out? Does he realise that these tedious and halting steps towards repayment, though welcome, are really painful, and, having in mind the Prime Minister's speech in the House when he did not rule out larger sums being available if the fund was not sufficient to liquidate the debts, will my right hon. Friend accept that a more venturesome policy could be indulged in?

Mr. Heath

Eight and a half million pounds have so far been paid by the Foreign Compensation Commission. These new rates will increase that sum considerably. As there is still a considerable number of claims for loss on sequestration to come in as the property is being desequestrated, it is not possible to estimate exactly what the total amount paid at these new rates will be. I cannot give my hon. Friend an exact figure. What I have said goes as far as we can go at the moment.

Mr. W. Yates

Is the Lord Privy Seal aware of the statement made by the previous Chancellor of the Exchequer that, if the sums of money available were not adequate to meet these claims, Her Majesty's Government would see that they were met properly?

Mr. Heath

Yes, I am well aware of that statement, and, of course, Her Majesty's Government adhere to it; but we cannot yet foresee what the total amount will be. Until desequestration is nearly at its end, it will not be possible to do so.