Mr. O'NeillTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what communications his Department has had with the firms, Walter Somers Ltd. and Sheffield Forgemasters Ltd., regarding the export of goods to Iraq.
§ Mr. LilleyMy Department has had three approaches from Walter Somers Ltd. and two letters from Forgemasters Engineering about equipment now known to be for the Iraqi long-range gun project.
§ Mr. CabornTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what information he has as to which overall contracts the gun components for Iraq were part of; and whether any such contracts were promoted by his Department through the British Overseas Trade Board export intelligence service.
§ Mr. Lilley[holding answer 11 December 1990]: Orders for components of the Iraqi long-range gun used the number of a genuine petrochemical project known as PC2. Genuine orders for project PC2 were promoted through the BOTB's export intelligence service, but none of the information passed related to the Iraqi gun project.
§ Mr. CabornTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what action was taken after the report of Walter Somers that it had been approached about aiming equipment in the Iraqi supergun order.
§ Mr. Lilley[holding answer 11 December 1990]: Walter Somers was advised that an export licence would not be granted for such equipment. No further action was taken in the absence of a connection between this and any other orders.
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§ Mr. CabornTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what was the day on which it was made known to his Department that Dr. Gerald Bull had conceived plans involving piping for a gun or launcher.
§ Mr. Lilley[holding answer 11 December 1990]: Evidence began to accumulate on this in late 1989.
§ Mr. CabornTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what specifications of the Iraqi supergun export order were given to his Department.
§ Mr. Lilley[holding answer 11 December 1990]: Certain descriptions and drawings of materials now known to relate to the Iraqi long-range gun were passed to the Department by Walter Somers and Sheffield Forgemasters in 1988.
§ Mr. CabornTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether any inquiries were made to the Export Credits Guarantee Department in respect of the Iraqi gun export order.
§ Mr. Lilley[holding answer 11 December 1990]: For reasons of commercial confidentiality, it has been the policy of successive Governments not to disclose details of commercial relations between ECGD and its customers.
§ Mr. CabornTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when the specifications of the Iraqi export order supergun were first available to his Department.
§ Mr. Lilley[holding answer 11 December 1990]: No full specification of the supergun as a whole has ever been passed to this Department.