Conduct Of The Secretary Of State For Defence And Oral Answers On The Scott Report

EDM number 578 in 1995-96, proposed by Peter Hain on 05/03/1996.

That this House is astonished at the ignorance displayed by the Secretary of State for Defence at Question Time on 5th March when responding to questions put by the honourable Member for Neath and the supplementary by the honourable Member for Linlithgow concerning the section G9 of the Scott Report, particularly information provided to the Ministry of Defence on the role of provision of dual-use military/civil technology to Iraq; notes that Mr Alan Barrett, an official at the Ministry of Defence's Export Services Secretariat in an intelligence report dated 20th December 1988 and circulated to Defence Ministers stated that 'intelligence sources indicated that (Matrix Churchill) lathes were to be used for making shells and munitions' according to the Scott Report, Volume III, page 1238 at G9.2; and believes the Secretary of State should meet a minimum standard expected when discharging his ministerial duties including briefing himself on those sections of the Scott Report which specifically relate to his Department and undertaking at least to follow up oral questions in written form when he does not know what the answer is.

This motion has been signed by a total of 46 MPs.