HL Deb 08 December 1993 vol 550 cc76-7WA
Lord Lester of Herne Hill

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether it is their policy to seek to negotiate the removal of the limits imposed by the Warsaw Convention and The Hague Protocol upon the compensation payable for the death or injury of passengers during international carriage by air.

The Earl of Caithness

It is not our policy to negotiate the removal of the limits imposed by the Warsaw Convention. But the Government are concerned at the growing disparity between the limits binding on signatories of the original convention, and those binding on signatories of the convention as amended by its subsequent protocols. The Government also believe that there is a need to update even the limits set in the most recent protocols. The UK is therefore taking an active part in discussions in the European Civil Aviation Conference on possible arrangements under which the convention's framework would be kept but the liability limits increased to a uniform and realistic level.