| Al Yamamah report must be released - Pugh |
| Tuesday, 23 January 2007 | |
|
Liberal Democrat MP John Pugh has introduced a Private Members Bill which will enable MPs to force the Government to refer sensitive documents to Parliament for scrutiny. This follows the Government’s refusal to allow members of the Public Accounts Committee to read the recent National Audit Office report on the al Yamamah arms deal. Dr Pugh, MP for Southport, said: "Currently no MP has the right of access to this report - the only report of the National Audit Office never to be published. At the moment, astonishingly, the Government can, using a host of shoddy arguments, deny Parliament access to its own papers if it thinks it will do us no good.” Dr Pugh is aiming to install a procedure whereby if enough members were to apply for access to the documents, they would be made readily available “to a relevant Committee of the House for scrutiny, perhaps with appropriate caveats”. In this way he feels that Parliament’s right to scrutiny would at least be minimally preserved. The inquiry by the Serious Fraud office into arms sales by the UK to Saudi Arabia was dropped on the orders of the Government shortly before Christmas. The resulting media speculation has done little to enhance the credibility of the UK and Saudi authorities and BAE Systems, the prime contractor involved in the arms sales. Dr Pugh added: "This attempted cover-up by the Government has been a cunning plan that even Baldrick might have bettered. It has backfired spectacularly and is now damaging the reputations of those it sought to protect. "Parliament has the choice of rescuing the Government from the mire or confessing its impotence." |