§ 16. Mr. Colvinasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if the Government intend to pay any further sums for compensation to former owners of aircraft and shipbuilding assets nationalised under the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977.
§ Mr. PattieNo, Sir. The Government's policy remains as stated by my right hon. Friend the then Secretary of State for Industry on 7 August 1980.
§ Mr. ColvinIs my hon. Friend aware that earlier this year the European Commission of Human Rights decided that all seven cases that it had considered were admissible to the Strasbourg court? Is it still the view of his Department, as expressed by the then Secretary of State, that compensation terms payable under the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977 were in many cases grossly unfair? Should not a Conservative Government be more concerned with property rights and preserving them than with worrying about a little bit of legislation which will be required to right this wrong?
§ Mr. PattieThe Commission found that there had been no breach of the United Kingdom's obligation under the European Convention on Human Rights' first protocol and it has referred the matter to the court for an authoritative further ruling. I recognise my hon. Friend's anxiety on this matter. This is an important issue, Mr. Speaker, so perhaps I might quote, I hope not too extensively, what my right hon. Friend the then Secretary of State said on 7 August 1980:
We recognise that some previous owners and many members of this House and of the public believe that the terms of compensation imposed by the 1977 Act were grossly unfair to some of the companies and we share this view. We have explored every possibility to right the injustice done by the previous Government, but to our very great regret we have concluded that amending legislation to establish new compensation terms retrospectively would be unjust to the many people who sold shares on the basis of the previous terms."—[Official Report, 7 August 1980; Vol. 990, c. 290.]