§ Mr. Wallasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what amount has been paid from public funds to meet the scale of payments of compensation prescribed in the Foreign Compensation (Egypt) (Final Distribution) Order, 1963; and what further amounts will need to be provided.
§ Mr. WhitlockIn his statement on 11th December, 1962, the then Parliamentary18W Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs said that the estimated cost of the new scale of compensation then announced would be about £6.5 million.
The amount paid from public funds into the Egyptian Compensation Fund up to the end of December, 1968 was £5.6 million; the remaining commitment is likely to be approximately £3.1 million, bringing the estimated total cost to public funds of the "topping-up" of the Egyptian Compensation Fund to about £8.7 million.
Outstanding claims are estimated at £2.5 million and there will be additional claims from owners whose property has been sequestrated since 1956 and is now beginning to be released from sequestration under the arrangements made with the United Arab Republic in the Exchange of Notes of 24th April, 1967.
Part of the cost in excess of the 1962 estimate of £6.5 million arises from the recent decision of the House of Lords in the case of Anisminic v. The Foreign Compensation Commission, as a result of which the Foreign Compensation Commission are re-hearing this and reviewing a number of other claims. Most of the outstanding payments are likely to be made during the financial year 1969–70 and provision is being made accordingly in the main estimates.—[Vol. 669, c. 211–12.]