Written question asked by Simon Thomas (Plaid Cymru) on Tuesday, 22 February 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 24 March 2005. It was answered by Douglas Alexander (Labour) on Thursday, 24 March 2005 on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry.

Dept of Trade and Industry

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, whether breaches of the World Bank's involuntary resettlement policy (OD 4.30) constitute breaches of the project agreements for the Baku Tbilisi Ceyhan pipeline.

Answer: Mr. Simon Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether breaches of the World Bank's involuntary resettlement policy (OD 4.30) constitute breaches of the project agreements for the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. [218293] Mr. Alexander: A breach of the World Bank involuntary resettlement policy (OD 4.30) would represent a breach of the Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD) loan agreement for the project if it were considered to have a material effect on the project. Breaches not rectified within a reasonable period, in accordance with the project's Environment and Social Action Plan and the ECGD loan agreement, would constitute an incident for which an event of default could be called. A Social and Resettlement Action Plan (SRAP) Monitoring Panel, made up of international resettlement and social development experts, has been monitoring the implementation of the Resettlement Action Plan, including the expropriation of land for the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline project. The SRAP panel's reports are sent to the lender group and are also published on the project website at: www.caspiandeve lopmentandexport.com.

Secondary information