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Prevention of Nuclear Proliferation

I understand my right hon. Friend's point, which brings me neatly to the five questions that I wish to ask the Minister. The Government say in the impact assessment that they want to press for further international action. They also say that"““there is a risk that the measure will be weakened by financial institutions in other countries providing financial services to Iranian banks, including in support of Iran's proliferation-sensitive activities””." My question to the Minister echoes some of the concerns expressed by my right hon. Friend. Will he assure us that he and his Foreign Office colleagues will be active in using all available diplomatic channels to put pressure on other countries to impose sanctions similar to those bilaterally imposed by the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada? It is clear that a concerted international effort is greatly needed to put further pressure on Iran to change course. We think it important to support the order, but some of my questions are important as well, including one concerning enforcement and penalties. We know that there have been instances of financial institutions breaking rules laid down to prevent Iran's progress towards nuclear capability. Two years ago, in December 2009, Credit Suisse was fined $536 million in the United States for the removal of information in relation to the origination of US-bound transactions from the ““Atomic Energy Organization of Iran”” and the Iranian ““Aerospace Industries Organization””. In January 2009 Lloyds bank was fined a substantial $350 million in the United States for similar breaches involving Iran and other international restrictions, while in August 2010 Barclays was fined $300 million. Criminal offence and civil penalties will apply in relation to non-compliance with—or knowledge of, and intentional circumvention of—the new requirements that we are discussing. The penalties are the same as those that the enforcement authorities and courts have in respect of non-compliance under the money laundering regulations 2007—fines, imprisonment for a maximum of two years and so on. The Americans clearly take breaches very seriously, as is shown by the scale of the fines they have imposed, so my question to the Minister is: can he reassure the House that the UK will take a similarly robust approach, with penalties on a scale that reflects the seriousness of the offence, both to prevent breaches of the rules and to punish appropriately those who breach them? My third question for the Minister relates to the explanatory memorandum, which makes it clear that a licence for exemptions from this order can be granted by the Minister on a case-by-case basis. The impact assessment states that"““it is unlikely we will license significant further exemptions for businesses as this would risk undermining the purpose of the measure””." That is self-explanatory. We recognise that exemptions are not likely to take place on a significant scale, but will the Minister set out in what circumstances exemptions might be made to those restrictions? My fourth question relates to the fact that the order has a time limit of a year and, under paragraph 38 of schedule 7 to the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008, the Treasury will be obliged to report every year on the exercise of its functions under that schedule. The Minister has said, as does the explanatory memorandum, that the order will be kept under review, but given the fast-moving developments and narrow time scales involved in the situation with Iran, will he commit to reporting to this House before the annual deadline if circumstances change—for instance, if negotiations on the nuclear programme were to improve or worsen? We hope that the latter would not be the case. Lastly, will the Minister make it clear to the House, and leave no doubt about the message we are sending today to the people of Iran and to the international community more widely, that despite attacks on our channels of diplomacy with assaults on our embassy, we will not be deterred from actively and creatively pursuing all diplomatic options at our disposal to ensure that Iran upholds its responsibilities and obligations under international law? There is a widespread hope that diplomacy must prevail. We, and other nations around the globe, cannot afford to be complacent. The Opposition welcome this measure from the Treasury and hope that, with the Foreign Office, it will, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Blackburn (Mr Straw) said, be proactive in building a broader diplomatic effort across the globe to stop Iran flouting international law.