§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his answer to the right hon. Member for Swansea, West (Mr. Williams) of 25 February,Official Report, column 498, if he will now make it his policy to make financial and contractual arrangements of soft loans for overseas aid and development projects the subject of a formal announcement.
§ Mr. GoodladThe signature of all new soft loan arrangements—umbrella agreements—and individual soft loan projects are usually announced through an ODA press release. However, the detailed financial and contractual agreements between Her Majesty's Government and the recipient Government contains commercially sensitive information and are therefore not the subject of formal announcement.