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International Security

Volume 453: debated on Thursday 23 November 2006

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the Government’s significant reservations are about the proposals by the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe for (a) the regulation of the security services, (b) civil and state aircraft and (c) state immunity. (102515)

The Government believe that domestic legislation and international legal instruments already exist to deal satisfactorily with the concerns raised by the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe. The activities of the British security and intelligence agencies are governed by domestic legislation. Civil and state aircraft and state immunity are governed by customary international law and by treaties, including the Chicago Convention and the 2004 UN Convention on the Jurisdictional Immunities of States and their Property. We see no need to create new mechanisms.