To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will take steps with the World Bank as part of the HIPC initiative to resolve conflicts between the decisions made by the International Court for the Settlement of Investment Disputes and the obligations on heavily indebted poor countries. [113396]

Generally the International Court for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) arbitration relates solely to the claim being considered, and need not have any bearing on how commercial debt should be treated under the Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) more widely, which primarily focuses on the cancellation of debt acquired through borrowing, and not with claims that might arise from the possibly illegal appropriation of assets.However, we would hope that any investor successfully claiming through ICSID would act in the spirit of the HIPC Initiative and settle for a smaller sum, in line with the Paris Club treatment of bilateral debt.