Bank of England

Mr. Laws
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have given authorisations in relation to monies (i) held in and (ii) transferred from a British Aerospace account at the Bank of England since May 1997; and if he will make a statement.

Dr. Cable
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the role of the Paymaster General and her officials was in relation to the Bank of England account used for payments under the support services annexes to the Al Yamamah contract.

Des Browne
[holding answers 19 June 2007]: The Department is not aware of any such account.