That this House calls on the President of the Board of Trade to proceed no further with the appointment from 1st April of Lord Walker as Chairman of the Urban Regeneration Agency, nor as his adviser on job-creation in pit closure areas, because of the new evidence which has come to light with the publication on 17th March of the minutes of evidence and memoranda of the Committee of Public Accounts investigation into the 1991-92 Accounts of the Welsh Development Agency (HC, 1992-93, 353-i), where on pages 48 and 49 (Appendix 5) details are disclosed of merchant bankers Barclays de Zoete Wedd submitting a preliminary report to Lord Walker, then Secretary of State for Wales, on future options for increased private sector participation in the activities of the Welsh Development Agency and specifically to the choice between placing a majority of shares in the Agency with financial institutions together with a Stock Exchange listing, or on the other hand an outright flotation of all shares in the Agency, all knowledge of which privatisation proposals was denied by the self-same Secretary of State in the course of Welsh Questions on 17th July 1989, Official Report, column 5, when he gave the answer 'no Sir' followed by 'the honourable gentleman is totally wrong' to the question by the honourable Member for Carmarthen, asking specifically about the existence of discussions between Barclays de Zoete Wedd and the Agency and whether the agenda in those discussions included both possible 50-50 public-private structure and 'outright privatisation'.

That this House calls on the President of the Board of Trade to proceed no further with the appointment from 1st April of Lord Walker as Chairman of the Urban Regeneration Agency, nor as his adviser on job-creation in pit closure areas, because of the new evidence which has come...

That this House considers that the new evidence in relation to the responsibility of Lord Walker for the initiation of the Operation Wizard privatisation exercise for the Welsh Development Agency in 1988-89 revealed in pages 48-9 of the Committee of Public Accounts minutes of evidence on the WDA's Accounts (HC, 1992-93, 353-i) demonstrates clearly that the WDA was not safe in Lord Walker's hands then, and that therefore the nation's pit closure areas and the new Urban Regeneration Agency will not be safe in his hands either; urges the Committee of Public Accounts to examine closely whether Lord Walker, as one of the prime movers in the Operation Wizard privatisation strategy for the WDA, should now be asked to repay an appropriate proportion of the ??308,000 total of professional consultancy fees incurred without any parliamentary authority by the WDA at Lord Walker's behest; and is not surprised that he has been keen to disown his involvement.

That this House considers that the new evidence in relation to the responsibility of Lord Walker for the initiation of the Operation Wizard privatisation exercise for the Welsh Development Agency in 1988-89 revealed in pages 48-9 of the Committee of Public Accounts minutes of evidence on the WDA's Accounts (HC,...

That this House notes that Peter Walker was approached by Kevin Maxwell to be the Chairman of MCC in March 1991, a deal which gave him ??100,000 a year for a non-executive position, a Mercedes 500 SEL, and share options worth ??1.3 million over three years; notes his acceptance of the post was announced in April when he become a director of MCC and notes that after the results in June he became concerned about the finances of the company and commissioned two reports, one by Smith New Court and another by a firm of management consultants; further notes on the basis of these reports that Peter Walker announced he would not become chairman on 16th July 1991 and stepped down as a non-executive director at the group's AGM in September when he received the car, a ??100,00 pay off and 201,000 shares which he sold immediately at around 170p a share; recognises that these decisions may have been based on Peter Walker's evaluation that the future viability of the company was in doubt, rather than on any information he received from reports commissioned on the basis of information he gained as a board member; and calls upon Peter Walker to make clear that any doubts or worries he had about MCC were passed on to the relevant regulatory bodies.

That this House notes that Peter Walker was approached by Kevin Maxwell to be the Chairman of MCC in March 1991, a deal which gave him ??100,000 a year for a non-executive position, a Mercedes 500 SEL, and share options worth ??1.3 million over three years; notes his acceptance of...

That this House recognises with growing concern the number of ex-Government Ministers taking up senior positions in companies previously privatised by their own Department; notes that the precedent was established by the Right honourable Member for Chingford and subsequently followed by the Right honourable Members for Sutton Coldfield and Worcester; and, acknowledging the current prohibition of civil servants from such positions in private companies until a reasonable time has elapsed since they left office, urges the Government to give an assurance that the disparity in this regard will be addressed immediately as it clearly raises issues of propriety and the possibility of a personal conflict of interest.

That this House recognises with growing concern the number of ex-Government Ministers taking up senior positions in companies previously privatised by their own Department; notes that the precedent was established by the Right honourable Member for Chingford and subsequently followed by the Right honourable Members for Sutton Coldfield and Worcester;...

That this House thinks that Wales should not be burdened with a Secretary of State who, as a result of his announcement of his intention to resign at some unspecified future date, is limited in his ability to make decisions which bind his successor; points out that this would be an intolerable situation in any Department, but is especially so in a Department with such wide-ranging responsibilities; and calls upon the Prime Minister to end this Whitehall farce by immediately appointing his successor.

That this House thinks that Wales should not be burdened with a Secretary of State who, as a result of his announcement of his intention to resign at some unspecified future date, is limited in his ability to make decisions which bind his successor; points out that this would be...

That this House regrets that the Secretary of State for Wales has denied, Official Report, column 605, 22nd January, authorship of the advice that, in the event of a nuclear attack, farmers should protect their cattle by driving them into a deep lane ditch and covering them with a tarpaulin sheet, in spite of the attribution of the statement to the Secretary of State by the Daily Mirror and the New Statesman; and asserts that the advice was as illuminating as the claim by the Ministry of Defence in 1980 that there might be 'an abundance of meat available immediately after a nuclear attack'; as useful as a civil defence seminar, reported in the Surrey Comet, on 'How to maintain public morale while disposing of 25 million corpses' and as informative as the revelation by Councillor Dennis Pettitt, who was reported in the Nottingham Evening Post as saying, as leader of the council, that 'house prices in Chilwell had gone up because people knew that in the event of nuclear war they would be incinerated instantly' in that area and not suffer lingering deaths as on the outskirts.

That this House regrets that the Secretary of State for Wales has denied, Official Report, column 605, 22nd January, authorship of the advice that, in the event of a nuclear attack, farmers should protect their cattle by driving them into a deep lane ditch and covering them with a tarpaulin...