§ Miss WiddecombeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which Ministers and officials in his Department have(a) been contacted by and (b) contacted (i) Mr. G. P. Hinduja and (ii) Mr. S. P. Hinduja since 2 May 1997; if he will list the occasions on which there was such contact; and if he will make a statement. [148074]
§ Mr. Straw[holding answer 31 January 2001]: My Department has had contact with Mr. G. P. Hinduja and Mr. S. P. Hinduja in respect of their applications for naturalisation and in respect of immigration matters. Information about contacts concerning their applications for naturalisation will be made available to Sir Anthony Hammond as part of his review of the possibility of an application for naturalisation by Mr. S. P. Hinduja in 1998. Sir Anthony's report will be published and copies placed in the Vote Office and the Library. It would 239W be inappropriate for me to pre-empt the outcome of this review. Information about contact in respect of immigration matters can be produced only at disproportionate cost.
Neither I, nor any of my Ministers, have had any official meetings with either Mr. G. P. Hinduja or Mr. S. P. Hinduja.
My right hon. Friend the Member for Brent, South (Mr. Boateng) received a letter at his constituency office from Mr. S. P. Hinduja in September 2000 in his capacity as a local MP about parking facilities for people visiting the Swaminarayan Hindu Mandir in his Brent, South constituency. This was dealt with by my right hon. Friend in the usual way and referred to his local authority. Otherwise, neither I, nor my Ministers, recall having been contacted by or having contacted either Mr. G. P. Hinduja or Mr. S. P. Hinduja in the period from 2 May 1997, although we may have been present at functions at the same time as Mr. G. P. and Mr. S. P. Hinduja. For example, the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, my hon. Friend the Member for North Warwickshire (Mr. O'Brien), believes that when he spoke, by invitation, as a Minister at the Sikh Forum Dinner on 18 October 1999, Mr. S. P Hinduja was a guest on the platform table and that at a reception organised by my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing, Southall (Mr. Khabra) on 3 July, which he attended, Mr. S. P. Hinduja was also present. I understand that Mr. G. P. Hinduja was present at the Asia Light evening held in Brighton last year and that Mr. S. P. Hinduja and Mr. G. P. Hinduja were present at the Labour Party's Annual Gala Dinner on 15 April 1999. I was present at both these events. My hon. Friend the Member for North Warwickshire and I received invitations to the Hinduja Foundation Diwali Gala evening on 3 November 1999. We did not attend; officials from the Home Office Race Equality Unit attended the event.
§ Dr. Julian LewisTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the allegations against G. P. Hinduja and S. P. Hinduja respectively of which his Department was aware when the decisions to award citizenship to each of them were made. [150377]
§ Mr. StrawI refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave the right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe) and the hon. Members for Aylesbury (Mr. Lidington) and for Bury St. Edmunds (Mr. Ruffley) on 30 January 2001,Official Report, column 166W.