John Pugh's Bill to scrutinise secret Government contracts

7.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 25th Jan 2007

John Pugh wants Parliament to scrutinise secret Government contracts

John Pugh, Lib Dem MP for Southport, introduced a short Bill in the House of Commons to allow Parliamentary scrutiny of secret Government contracts such as the al-Yamamah arms deal. He said that the release to an appropriate committee of the Commons of sensitive reports like the National Audit Office report on the arms deal would do much to restore credibility all round.

John Pugh moved his Bill under the '10 Minute Rule' on 23 January 2007, with the snappy title "Intergovernmental Contracts (Provision of Information) Bill". Behind this innocuous sounding title is a serious attempt to deal with a serious scandal. At present, Parliament has no right to see reports from the National Audit Office on controversial Government contracts such as the multi-billion pound al-Yamamah arms deal to supply weapons to Saudi Arabia.

In moving the Bill on the floor of the House, John Pugh called for a relevant Committee of the House to have scrutiny of documents such as the al-Yamamah report. He told MPs "I strongly believe that such a minimal mechanism needs to exist, if only to show that Parliament is not reduced to the supine, ludicrous position where it is not even allowed to read its own papers, simply because the Government, with a host of obviously shoddy arguments, tell us that it can do us no good."

"When the Serious Fraud Office inquiry was dropped before Christmas in a cunning Government plan that even Baldrick might have bettered, I suggested in the Chamber to Solicitor-General that the understandable suspicion provoked, and now snowballing, could be allayed by allowing wider access to the report, perhaps on a confidential basis."

"If we wish BAE to have a business reputation as unsurpassed as its technical excellence, if we wish for an equal and understanding friendship with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its people, and if we wish for protection against the next scandal or allegation that is going to ripen, whether from Tanzania or elsewhere, self-evidently we cannot leave matters to the Government. Parliament must assert its right to scrutiny or abjectly acknowledge its impotence."

The full text of John Pugh's speech moving the Intergovernmental Contracts (Provision of Information) Bill is on the Hansard website at http://tinyurl.com/2sqezo