§ Dr. Reginald Bennettasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if, in view of the fact that the embassy car registered 1 GAB was driven the wrong way down Thackeray Street, W.8, at 2.50 p.m. on Friday 12th March 1976, he will cease to extend diplomatic immunity to driving offences of this kind.
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§ Mr. EnnalsThe immunities enjoyed by diplomatic agents in this country are provided not by my right hon. Friend but by Parliament in the Diplomatic Privileges Act 1964, which gives effect to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961, the provisions of which are observed almost universally. Withdrawal of immunities for the reasons indicated in the Question is not possible under he Act and would be contrary to the international obligations of the United Kingdom. Where we are satisfied that, but for immunity, a diplomatic agent would have been prosecuted, representations are made to the mission concerned.