Written question asked by David Winnick (Labour) on Tuesday, 7 March 2000, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 10 March 2000. It was answered by Lord Hain (Labour) on Friday, 10 March 2000 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what plans the Government has to ensure that there is adequate medicine to allow Iraqi civilians to receive the treatment needed.

Answer: Mr. Winnick: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what plans the Government have to ensure that there is adequate medicine to allow Iraqi civilians to receive the treatment needed. [114119] Mr. Hain: The Government have always worked closely with the UN to ensure that the humanitarian programme is as effective as possible in order to ease the suffering of the Iraqi people. SCR 1284, a UK initiative, contains a raft of measures to make the programme bigger and better, including the removal of the ceiling on the amount of oil Iraq can sell to purchase humanitarian goods. But the government of Iraq is ultimately responsible for deciding how that review is to be allocated. We urge the government of Iraq to take full advantage of the opportunities SCR 1284 offers, and to put the people's needs for food and medicines first when allocating revenue, rather than allocating millions of dollars for bank note counting machines, for example.

Secondary information