HC Deb 07 July 1999 vol 334 c555W
Mr. Clapham

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will take steps to ensure that companies are legally liable for injuries caused to overseas workers as a result of operational decisions taken in the United Kingdom; and if he will make a statement. [89350]

Mr. Vaz

[holding answer 2 July 1999]: Under English and Scots law companies are liable for injuries to their workers caused by their negligence. The courts decide in accordance with well established legal principles under each legal system whether claims may proceed in the English or the Scottish courts when it is alleged that the cause of injuries to overseas workers was operational decisions taken in the United Kingdom. The Government has no plans to legislate in this area.

Mr. Clapham

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what steps he plans to bring UK law into line with Article 2 of the 1968 Brussels Convention on court action against companies registered abroad [89349]

Mr. Vaz

[holding answer 2 July 1999]: Under Article 2 of the 1968 Brussels Convention on Jurisdiction and Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters, to which the United Kingdom is a party, a defendant is entitled to be sued in the courts of a member state of the European Union where he is domiciled. Once this basis of Jurisdiction has been established the courts of that state generally have no discretion to refuse to hear the case. However, this rule applies only to those cases falling within the scope of the Convention. In all other instances, and notwithstanding that jurisdiction has otherwise been established under English law, a court in England and Wales has a discretion to refuse to hear a case if in all the circumstances of that case it is satisfied that there is another jurisdiction which is clearly more appropriate to hear the case. The courts in England and Wales apply this long-established discretion in the interests of all the parties and the ends of justice and the Government has no plans to amend it.