Business of the House

Henry Smith Excerpts

Thursday 8th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I am very sorry to hear that the hon. Gentleman’s constituent’s children have been abducted; I know what a serious issue that is. I will make inquiries in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to see what representations we are able to make to the Libyan Administration, and what powers are available to them to track down the children and bring them back to this country. I will ask the appropriate Minister in the FCO to contact the hon. Gentleman.

[Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)]

Earlier this week, I met US Treasury officials in Washington who share my concern that the SWIFT—Society for the Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication—financial transaction system is still being used by Iranian banks, despite sanctions. May we have a debate on the effective use of the SWIFT system so that we can ensure that countries such as Iran which promote terror are not able to operate under it?

[Sir George Young]

It is important that the financial sanctions agreed against Iran are not undermined or subverted in any way. I will ask my right hon. Friends at the Treasury to take up my hon. Friend’s point and see whether there is any action we can take to ensure that the appropriate UN resolutions are enforced.