Olympic and Paralympic Games 2012: Trade and Investment
Debate between Lord Jones of Birmingham and Lord Marland
Lord Marland
I shall be bathing in sunshine tomorrow and I am now bathing in sunshine here, so I thank the noble Lord for that kind remark.
Lord Jones of Birmingham
I declare an interest as a chairman and an adviser to many of the exporters who benefited from UK Trade and Investment at Lancaster House during the Olympics. I start by congratulating Her Majesty’s Government on a very good business programme linked to the Olympic Games. Can the Minister give three assurances? First, will the business club, started at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002 and promulgated through Lancaster House during the Olympics and Paralympics, be continued in Glasgow in 2014, notwithstanding all the efforts of certain people who might think to the contrary? Secondly, will the Minister, as all Ministers and parliamentarians of all parties should, fly the flag around the world to generate jobs and tax-generating profit in this nation? Thirdly, will the Minister follow up on all the contacts made at Lancaster House with taxpayers’ money to generate jobs?
Lord Marland
I am very grateful to the noble Lord for his supplementary on his supplementary on his supplementary question. Time will allow me to deal with only one of them, but I thank him for everything that he did, and of course I thank people for everything that they did cross-party to promote British business. I am leading something called the GREAT campaign, which I hope has been well advertised in this country and abroad. That is a good platform for showing people our great country.
Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill
Debate between Lord Jones of Birmingham and Lord Marland
Lord Marland
Obviously, I cannot go into specific detail as to insurance coverage; that is for the companies and their balance sheets. I admit that I used to be in the insurance business and have a rough idea of what is going on. I am sure that some insurance salesman will be keen to sell a little more as a result. The message that we have received from the London insurance market is that the insurance companies are there to pay for the losses, which they have already estimated. They are in the process of providing for those losses and, indeed, have already paid north of half a billion pounds-worth to some of the companies involved.
My noble friend put his finger on a broader point. Only 65 per cent of the oil well was owned by BP; 25 per cent was owned by an American company called Anadarko and 10 per cent by Mitsui. As regards the drilling well itself, Transocean was the drilling contractor, Cameron was the manufacturer of the blow-out preventer, Halliburton was responsible for the cement casing, and we should give great credit to BP that it has stood up to be counted through these very difficult times and has been prepared to stand in the spotlight. It has behaved extremely properly in this regard, as one would expect of a major multinational corporation.
Lord Jones of Birmingham
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, for an excellent exposition of the consequences, and I am grateful to the Minister—especially for his last comments. Perhaps I may ask for his response on two aspects. First, the Statement in another place mentioned that the payment or not of the dividend from BP, which concerns pension funds on both sides of the Atlantic and will further affect the share price in one way or another, was a matter for BP and did not concern this Government. I should welcome the noble Lord’s comments on the fact that that is clearly not the attitude of the gentleman to whom the Prime Minister spoke on the telephone over the weekend, given that President Obama made it very clear that it is very much the business of the White House as to whether BP pays a dividend. How will this Government stand up and be counted on behalf of the pensioners of Britain?
Secondly, the Statement mentioned, and we read last week about, the possibility of criminal proceedings coming out of this. Will the attitude of the United Kingdom to any request for extradition of people who might be indicted be, I trust, the same that the Americans would apply to any request to extradite people from America to Bhopal in India?
Lord Marland
The noble Lord poses some interesting questions. He knows as well as I do that BP is a $100-billion company with a $35-billion cash flow—even after the recent reduction in its share price. It is in a strong balance-sheet position to suffer the losses from this horrendous disaster. The noble Lord may also know that BP pays its dividend quarterly, unlike many corporations. The BP board has agreed, and is committed, to a review of that position before 27 July and we are in that period. The noble Lord would not expect me to comment on criminal proceedings, would he? I am afraid that that is a matter for the law courts, not me. Doubtless we will follow the issue with interest. As regards the Government, I admire the way that the Prime Minister, David Cameron, has handled this matter; he has dealt with it in a calm and steady dialogue, rather than volatile rhetoric. In these circumstances, we have to be very careful to follow that path, because there is an awful lot at stake, as I hope I mentioned in the Statement.