Libya: Bribes

Lord Richard Excerpts

Thursday 10th March 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

Authority was given by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and those in the team engineering—with great bravery and swiftness—the evacuation procedure. No doubt there were checks back to London on whether the larger sums should be paid, and I am sure that immediate authority was given.

[Lord Richard]

To whom were the payments made? Were they made to the regular Libyan authorities or to people outside the normal process?

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

As far as I know, they were made to—I use the word again—regular authorities. However, one must envisage, as I am sure that the noble Lord, with his enormous experience of international affairs, recognises, that this was a chaotic situation in which various authorities were controlling the movement of aircraft and the operations of the airport. The ones who asked for the fees were those who normally charged the fees. That appears to have been the pattern. However, it was a far from regular situation.