Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what value of sovereign debt has been written off by UK Export Finance or its predecessors in relation to (a) Iran, (b) Iraq and (c) Jordan since 1970.

In respect of export credit guarantee instalments that have fallen due since 1970, please note the following.

Iran: Iran has repaid principal and contractual interest in full. In alignment with other export credit agencies, UK Export Finance (UKEF) has cancelled default interest. The value of this was around £530k.

Iraq: Under the United Kingdom/Iraq Debt Agreement No 1, which was signed in 2006 and which implemented the terms of Iraq’s 2004 multilateral Paris Club debt treatment, UKEF cancelled around £1bn of debt.

Jordan: In 2008, following Jordan’s early repayment of its outstanding Paris Club debt, Paris Club creditors agreed a global discount of 11% for the early repayment. In line with this agreement, UKEF cancelled around £42m in debt. In addition, a number of debt conversions involving Jordan took place between 2001 and 2006 which resulted in the cancellation of around £39m of debt.