HL Deb 03 July 1975 vol 362 cc437-42

INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS (IMMUNITIES AND PRIVILEGES) MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS ORDER 1975

8.39 p.m.

The PARLIAMENTARY UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE, FOREIGN and COMMONWEALTH OFFICE (Lord Goronwy-Roberts) rose to move, That the Draft International Whaling Commission (Immunities and Privileges) Order 1975, laid before the House on 10th June, be approved.

and

That the Draft International Organisations (Immunities and Privileges) Miscellaneous Provisions Order 1975, laid before the House on 10th June, be approved.

The noble Lord said: My Lords, I beg to move together the Motions relating to the International Whaling Commission (Immunities and Privileges) Order 1975 and the International Organisations (Immunities and Privileges) Miscellaneous Provisions Order 1975. These draft Orders were laid before the House on 10th June and will be made under the International Organisation Act 1968.

The draft Order relating to the International Whaling Commission is needed to give effect to a Headquarters Agreement which has recently been negotiated between Her Majesty's Government and the Commission. Although the International Whaling Commission was set up in 1946, its Secretariat has until now consisted only of a part-time Secretary, who is British, assisted by four junior staff of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. They also work for the Commission on a part-time basis. In these circumstances, the question of privileges and immunities had not arisen before.

However, the Secretariat is now being reorganised, so as to enable the Commission to implement the recommendations of the Stockholm Conference of 1972 on the Human Environment. These recommendations include strengthening of the Commission and the development of conservation efforts by means of international research in the field of whaling. The Commission decided that such changes required the establishment of a small international Secretariat, having its own premises and led by a full-time Secretary. This post will be filled by a qualified marine biologist recruited from among the Member-States of the Commission, and he will be assisted by an executive officer (who will probably be British, but may possibly be from another Member-State) and two locally recruited clerical staff. The Commission may also in the future appoint scientists from any Member-State to carry out research or investigational projects.

The new Secretariat will initially be housed in premises adjacent to the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, but will later move to a complex to be built, also in Cambridge, under the auspices of the Natural Environment Research Council. The running costs of the reorganised Secretariat will be met from the budget of the Commission, to which the 15 Member-States, which of course includes the United Kingdom, contribute according to their share of commercial whaling.

The purpose of the Headquarters Agreement which this Order will enable us to sign, is to provide the necessary conditions under which the Commission will be able to function freely and efficiently and without financial restraints. The Order follows to some extent the lines of the Orders made in respect of the five international commodity organisations now established in London, of which the most recent was the one concerning the International Cocoa Organisation made in February. Since, however, the International Whaling Commission is a very much smaller organisation with limited membership and responsibilities and a tiny Secretariat, the privileges and immunities it needs are correspondingly less, and this is reflected in the Order.

The tax exemptions accorded by the Order are based on the principle that the State in which an international organisation has its headquarters should not profit unduly from the funds contributed jointly by all the Member-States. This applies both to taxes and rates on the Commission property and goods required for its official use and to the salaries of its staff. The latter will be exempt from United Kingdom income tax but—as is common form in these cases—subject to an internal tax for the benefit of the Commission. This is the system in force in the case of most of the other international organisations in London.

The only immunity from jurisdiction accorded by this Order is in respect of official acts performed by representatives of Member-States, officials of the Commission and experts appointed to carry out specific tasks for it. In no case does this immunity extend to motor traffic offences. Unlike the international commodity organisation, the executive head of the Commission will enjoy no personal privileges other than the right to import his furniture and personal effects free of duty and taxes on first taking up his post here. In view of the very modest scale of privileges and immunities which this Order will accord, I have no hesitation in recommending it for your Lordships' approval.

I now come to the draft International Organisations (Immunities and Privileges) Miscellaneous Provisions Order, the purpose of which is to amend the Orders made in respect of a number of the international organisations to enable them to obtain relief from value added tax and car tax in a similar manner to that in which they previously obtained relief from the now abolished purchase tax. It is a technical change which is necessary. The Order is practically confined to that change.

The draft Order also makes certain other very minor amendments to some of the less recent Orders to bring them up to date, for example, in consequence of changes in the social security law. I beg to move.

8.45 p.m.

Earl COWLEY

My Lords, the whole House is grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Goronwy-Roberts, for explaining in such minute detail the contents of the two Orders. They are perfectly straightforward and we on this side of the House have no objections to them, and also commend them to the House. It is remarkable to see from the International Organisations (Immunities and Privileges) Miscellaneous Provisions Order the large number of international bodies that are represented in this country. While it is a compliment that these organisations should feel it necessary to have offices and representatives in Britain, it raises problems with so many people having some level of diplomatic immunity or privilege. But in many ways I believe that as yet this price is worth paying.

The most important of the two Orders is the one concerning the International Whaling Commission. The IWC came into being in November 1948 under the 1946 International Whaling Convention. The Commission's aim was, and still is, to provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and the orderly development of the whaling industry. However, the Commission's recommendations are not mandatory and this is one of its drawbacks. Thus the record of international co-operation provided by the IWC is a mixed one. Although it has not accomplished all the desired results, neither has it entirely failed. Indeed, the record of whale conservation would have been far worse had it not been for this international agreement.

Since I understand from the noble Lord that there are now 15 signatory States to the Convention, does this mean Brazil has now ratified the Convention? Also, could the noble Lord tell the House of the name of the British Commissioner on the IWC, or is his appointment awaiting the setting up of the Commission headquarters in Cambridge? I understand that each signatory State has the right to appoint one Commissioner to the Commission. I was also glad to hear from the noble Lord and read from the Order that the practice of excluding traffic offences and civil liability caused by motor vehicles from diplomatic immunity has been continued. This removes one of the more objectionable sources of diplomatic privileges and immunity granted to foreign diplomats.

Lord GORONWY-ROBERTS

My Lords, I respond briefly but warmly to the noble Earl's cogent speech in reply to the observations I made. I agree with him that there is considerable advantage to this country in being the host country to such a comparatively large number of international organisations, especially in the commodity field. This gives us a certain prestige and attracts to this country a certain expertise which mixes with our university and institutional centres devoted to research and specialised study. It also attracts a certain amount of foreign exchange which at all times is acceptable—and sometimes more acceptable than at others. So I join with the noble Earl in welcoming the fact that the International Whaling Commission—although we are perhaps the least practically interested in the operation of whaling of all the 15 Member-States—should have decided on the basis of its experience, having regard to the welcome and the efficiency which it has experienced here, to look forward to its next phase in an enlarged sense and a more permanent physical basis, and to have its home in Britain.

As to the two specific questions the noble Earl asked, he is right in saying that the total number so far is 15 Member-States. Efforts are being made to augment this membership from any non-Members so far, and the latest, I believe, is Brazil. This is one of the 15. The noble Earl asked for the name of the British Commissioner. Although the noble Earl gave me notice of this question a few minutes before the momentous Division in which we both took part, I have not been able to contact the source of information for this particular answer. With the agreement of the noble Earl, and the House, I will write to him indicating the name and the status. I think he wants to know how appropriately we are represented in what is, after all, a very important Commission, especially from the conservation side of this matter.

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