§ Mr. FlynnTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list each occasion since 1964 when gifts presented to hon. Members have been transported to the United Kingdom in diplomatic bags.
§ Mr. GoodladThe Vienna convention on diplomatic relations does not permit the use of the diplomatic bag for the carriage of non-official items on behalf of persons who are not designated as entitled by the convention. Accordingly, personal gifts presented to hon. Members may not be transported by diplomatic bag.
Records of materials carried by diplomatic bag are destroyed within 12 months of the bag having reached its destination. A scrutiny of the extant records indicates that no exception has been made to these rules in the past 12 months. Data on earlier bag movements are no longer available.