Dr. ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Energy if he will use his departmental shareholding in British Petroleum to put pressure on British Petroleum to stop its destruction of parts of the Jamari rain forest in Brazil.
§ Mr. Norman LamontI have been asked to reply.
No. The Government now hold only about 2 per cent. of the ordinary share capital of British Petroleum plc. Even when their shareholding was much larger, the Government did not use their rights as a shareholder to intervene in the commercial decisions of the company.