HL Deb 02 May 1984 vol 451 cc623-4WA
Lord Avebury

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Why they wrote to the Uganda Evacuees' Association saying that the matter of claims against the Uganda Government could not be discussed between the association and representatives of the Government, on the ground that an action for judicial review made it sub judice, when there is no rule of law which stops the parties to a civil action from compromising it, and when discussion for that purpose is a normal procedure used for the resolution of disputes.

Baroness Young

: The meetings requested by the director and the president of the Uganda Evacuees' Association were for the purpose of discussing our policy towards private claims against the Uganda Government. That policy is being challenged by the three applications for judicial review which are before the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court and which are supported by an affidavit from the director of the Uganda Evacuees' Association. In our view, the matters which the senior officers of the association wished to discuss lay at the heart of this legal action and it would therefore clearly have been inappropriate to agree to a meeting with them on this basis.