HC Deb 26 June 2000 vol 352 cc639-41
1. Mr. James Gray (North Wiltshire)

If he will make a statement about the cancellation of the global cultural diversity congress. [126117]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Mike O'Brien)

My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has today published Gurbux Singh's report of his review of the events leading up to the cancellation of the global cultural diversity congress, and has placed copies of the report in the Library.

My right hon. Friend and I are grateful to Gurbux Singh for his thorough review. We accept his findings. The review shows that there were plainly serious failings in the preparation for the congress. However, there is no evidence of impropriety. No single event or individual caused the cancellation of the congress. The decision by Ministers not to invest further public funds in the congress was not taken lightly, but it was the correct decision.

We still await the report of the liquidators of GCDC 2000 Ltd., the company set up by the Commission for Racial Equality to run the congress. In the meantime, we welcome the 10 recommendations made by Gurbux Singh about structure, procedure and training. We will ensure that they are implemented, improving financial and risk management within the CRE and clarifying roles, responsibilities and delegated responsibilities within the CRE and between the CRE and the Home Office. There are clearly lessons to be learned from GCDC 2000, and they will be applied to the management of other non-departmental public bodies.

Mr. Gray

I am grateful to the Minister for that statement, as I think it could be called, in reply to my question. Call me cynical, but I suspect that the placing of the report in the Library may not be unconnected with the fact that I was due to ask this question today. We will consult with some care the report to which the Minister referred, but I hope that the hon. Gentleman will answer one straightforward, factual question. Is it true, as one commissioner for racial equality claims, that the shambles over GCDC 2000 will cost the Government a total of £1 million—£600,000 of which will go to reimbursing the CRE, and £400,000 of which will be made up of Home Office expenses? If so, will the Minister take responsibility?

Mr. O'Brien

I assure the hon. Gentleman that the placing of the report in the Library was directly related to his question, which provided a good opportunity for publication.

Some losses will of course be incurred. We must await the liquidator's report before we know how great they are, although we estimate that they will be quite a bit less than the hon. Gentleman suggests. However, the immediate liability will lie with GCDC 2000 Ltd., the limited liability company set up by the CRE. We will have to wait and see whether any liability extends to the CRE. I do not anticipate that any funding will have to be made available by the Home Office for that. In July 1998, we made it clear that we would not put extra public funding into the project, and we stuck by that decision in February.

Mr. David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden)

The Minister will be aware that the problem and its associated irregularities have delayed this year's National Audit Office report on the CRE. Will he give the House an undertaking that the Comptroller and Auditor General will have access to all relevant information—including information about the limited liability company, to which he would not normally be able to refer?

Mr. O'Brien

Obviously, we will give as much information as we have in our possession to the Public Accounts Committee so that it can conduct its proper inquiries. There is no problem with that. When the right hon. Gentleman studies the report by Gurbux Singh he will see that it is very thorough, but we must of course await what the liquidators have to say about the outcome of their review of the matter. I gather that their report may be a few weeks, or even months, away.

Mr. David Lidington (Aylesbury)

I thank the Minister for his courtesy in letting me have an early copy of Mr. Gurbux Singh's report. Would he not agree that it represents a devastating catalogue of incompetence and mismanagement in the CRE, its holding company and the Home Office? Will he confirm that, among other charges, Mr. Singh says that the original budget for the conference was over-optimistic, that its costings were never assessed independently, that the accounting officer was kept in the dark, and that the process for approving funding was not as independent as it could have been? Does the Minister accept that it is not adequate to say that no one is responsible and that responsibility for the mismanagement must be shared by everyone engaged in planning the congress? The Government are planning considerably to extend the CRE's powers to investigate and report on Government Departments and institutions. Is it not clear that the commission's management, working methods and relationship with the Home Office must be thoroughly overhauled if Parliament and the public are to have confidence that those new powers will be exercised competently?

Mr. O'Brien

I ensured that the hon. Gentleman would receive a copy of the report before questions today, and I accept that that report discloses that there were failings, especially in GCDC 2000 Ltd., the company set up by the CRE. However, I do not think that that justifies a general attack on all the good work that the CRE has often done in the past. The hon. Gentleman needs to be careful not to get involved in that.

The CRE has protected its statutory independence from the Home Office and the Home Office has, to some extent, respected that over many years. However, we welcome Gurbux Singh's advice that in future there needs to be a closer working relationship between the Home Office and the CRE. In particular, the Home Office will want to be sure that it monitors carefully the financial issues in the CRE, and Gurbux Singh will be content with that, I know.

We think that many issues will emerge from the report. However, many of the recommendations in Gurbux Singh's report have already been implemented or will be implemented, and they will address the issues that came out of GCDC.