Egypt: Mubarak Family Assets

Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay Excerpts

Wednesday 16th February 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Crosby]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken to freeze the financial assets of the Mubarak family held in the United Kingdom.

[Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay]

My Lords, with the permission of the House and at the request of my noble friend Lady Williams, who is attending a funeral, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in her name on the Order Paper.

[The Commercial Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Sassoon)]

My Lords, for well established operational reasons, the Government cannot comment on individual asset-freezing cases. The Government have received a request from the Egyptian Government to freeze the assets of several former Egyptian officials. We will of course co-operate with this request, working with EU and international partners as we have done in the case of Tunisia. If there is any evidence of illegality or misuse of state assets, we will take firm and prompt action.

[Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay]

My Lords, I accept the point about individual cases, but will the Minister say how long he would expect SOCA normally to take to assess and approve a request of this kind? In particular, will the firm and prompt action that the Foreign Secretary has promised in this case be firmer and prompter than in the disgraceful case of President Daniel arap Moi of Kenya, who looted hundreds of millions from his people, and indeed of British taxpayers’ aid, left a lot of it in London banks, and eight years on has still not had to pay back a penny?

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, there are a number of potential courses of action, but the principal one now is working with our EU partners, following a similar route to the one that was adopted in relation to Tunisia. My right honourable friend the Chancellor discussed the issue with his colleagues in the context of the ECOFIN meetings earlier this week. EU diplomats are discussing the issue this week and it will be on the agenda of the Foreign Affairs Council meeting on Monday 21 February. It could decide to request the Commission to draw up a regulation similar to the one that was drawn up on Tunisia, which would be enforceable in all EU member states.