Asked by: Lord Gold (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of Turkey's financial, military, and political ties with the proscribed terrorist organisation Hamas; and what plans they have to address concerns about a member of NATO financing Hamas.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government has proscribed Hamas as a terrorist organisation and condemns its unacceptable attacks against civilians. Turkey has not proscribed Hamas, which is a sovereign decision. The UK supports Turkish efforts to encourage Hamas and Israel to end the conflict in Gaza and is working with a range of international partners, including our North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) ally Turkey, to counter the threat of terrorism and secure a lasting peace in the Middle East.
Asked by: Lord Gold (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take, if any, to mitigate the impact of the Supreme Court's ruling in R (on the application of PACCAR Inc and others) (Appellants) v Competition Appeal Tribunal and others (Respondents) [2023] UKSC 28 on the legal finance sector in the UK.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
The Government is committed to mitigating the impacts of the UK Supreme Court judgment of PACCAR and returning to a pre-PACCAR regime for third party litigation funding at the first legislative opportunity. We are actively looking to find appropriate legislative vehicles.
Asked by: Lord Gold (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on access to third-party litigation funding of the Supreme Court’s judgment in R (on the application of PACCAR Inc and others) (Appellants) v Competition Appeal Tribunal and others (Respondents) [2023] UKSC 28.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
A Government amendment to the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill seeks to mitigate the impact of the judgment on litigation funding agreements for opt-out collective proceedings in the Competition Appeals Tribunal (CAT). The Bill is currently being considered by Parliament.
The Government is assessing the impact of the judgment and considering options for non-CAT proceedings.
Asked by: Lord Gold (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the potential impact on current negotiations with Iran of the report that Yukiya Amano, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has stated that agency inspectors are being denied access to nuclear plants in Iran.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
On 7 November 2014, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General issued his latest report on the status of Iran’s nuclear programme. We are grateful to the IAEA for continuing to verify the nuclear elements of the Joint Plan of Action (JPoA), and the confirmation that Iran continues to implement the JPoA. However, we remain extremely disappointed by the lack of genuine cooperation from Iran on ‘Possible Military Dimensions’ (PMD) to its nuclear programme as reported by the Director General, and continue to offer our full support to the IAEA in pursuing the possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear programme. Iran continues to refuse access to certain sites to which the IAEA has requested access under PMD. However, we are not aware of reports that Iran is denying the IAEA access to nuclear plants.
A comprehensive agreement remains the most effective way to ensure that Iran’s nuclear programme is purely peaceful, and all nuclear measures under such an agreement will need to be robustly verified by the IAEA.