§ The Minister of State, Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (Lord Falconer of Thoroton)My Lords, I should like to take this first opportunity to put the record straight. In an oral Answer to a supplementary Question on 8th November I said that NMEC is not insolvent; that at all stages it traded entirely solvently and paid all its creditors. In fact, there was a period, as PricewaterhouseCoopers advised the company in the summer of 2000, when there was a need for a further Millennium Commission grant. Until the Millennium Commission confirmed the grant, there was a technical insolvency. Because the Millennium Commission made the further grant available on 5th September 2000, the insolvency never crystallised and all creditors have been paid.
The Answer I gave on Thursday was therefore unintentionally incorrect because it did not refer to that period. I apologise for the mistake, which is entirely my responsibility.