Committee Chairman demands Shawcross report publication

The Shawcross report examines the feasibility of compensating UK victims of IRA attacks that used Libyan-supplied Semtex with payments from Libyan assets frozen in the UK since the fall of Qadhafi. The Shawcross report was submitted to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in May 2020, but it has not been published. Meanwhile, the Libyan Investment Authority is apparently appealing to the UN to vary the terms under which its assets are frozen in the UK.

Writing to the Foreign Secretary on behalf of the Committee, Mr Hoare argued that allowing the lifting of sanctions before victims have been compensated as ‘reckless folly’. He added that if the Government cannot or will not publish the report, the Committee has the power ‘to send for persons, papers and records’.

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