§ Mr. Peter Bruinvelsasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many claims there have been for diplomatic or sovereign immunity in each of the past 10 years.
§ Mr. RifkindThe evidence given by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in June to the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs (HC 499—i) gave details of criminal offences since 1 January 1974 allegedly committed by persons enjoying diplomatic immunity. We have no central record of alleged criminal offences committed by persons entitled to sovereign immunity, but the number of such offences is very small.
549WWe have no means of knowing how many times diplomatic or sovereign immunity has been claimed in civil cases; nor of the number of times immunity has been claimed by an individual, but rejected by a court.