HC Deb 19 February 1979 vol 963 cc16-7
11. Mr. Budgen

asked the Secretary of State for Industry whether he will seek a meeting with the chairman of the National Enterprise Board.

15. Mr. Rooker

asked the Secretary of State for Industry when he expects to meet the chairman of the National Enterprise Board.

Mr. Kaufman

My right hon. Friend meets the chairman very frequently.

Mr. Budgen

When the Secretary of State next meets the chairman will he ask him when the board proposes to pay a dividend?

Mr. Kaufman

If the hon. Member genuinely wants my right hon. Friend to put that question to the chairman, my right hon. Friend, when he returns from China, will think about it.

Mr. Rooker

Is my right hon. Friend able to make a further statement following the exchange at Question Time on 15 January regarding the allegations about Allied Investments, apropos the NEB? Has he spoken to the chairman about the matter since then? If he has, has the name of the company Project Developments come to hand? That is the company that allegedly was used for the transfer of £3 million of bribes from Sir Richard Marsh's company to Saudi Arabian sources in order to get that order before the NEB took the company over.

Mr. Kaufman

As I undertook when the House discussed this matter, I communicated with the chairman of the NEB. I have had a reply from Sir Leslie Murphy in which he reiterated the assurances he gave me. I know that my hon. Friend will accept that the NEB, having twice reiterated those assurances, would not wish to move from that position. I repeat what I have said before. Anyone who feels, as a result of the various allegations that have been made, that his own reputation has been traduced has remedies available to him.

Mr. Christopher Price

I thank my right hon. Friend for holding the conversations to which he has referred, but is he aware that the situation is not yet satisfactory? The next time he has conversations about Allied Investments and the other companies involved, will he tell the NEB that it is not sensible to concentrate so much investment of medical exports of this kind in one or two Gulf States where there is a real danger following what has happened in Iran? If we are seriously entering the business of medical exports, at least our investments should be spread rather more widely.

Mr. Kaufman

I am sure that by now the NEB has come to study very carefully all the exchanges in the House on these matters.

Mr. Grylls

Does the Minister of State recognise that Question Time is the time for giving information to the House of Commons? Will he therefore treat the question of my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Mr. Budgen) seriously? The Minister of State is responsible, after the Secretary of State, for the NEB. When will the Board pay a dividend on the thousands of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money that have been put into it? It is a simple question.

Mr. Kaufman

I had hoped that the hon. Member for Surrey, North-West (Mr. Grylls) was going to take the opportunity of his supplementary question to apologise to Lord Stokes for the wanton way in which he traduced his reputation in this House.