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Lord Faulkner of Worcester (Lab)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 16 July 2025

Debate

Diplomatic Missions: Unpaid Charges

Contribution

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for that Answer and for the letters she wrote to me and to the noble Lord, Lord Bellingham, who I am pleased to see in his place, after he and I raised the scandal of unpaid debts and fines by diplomatic missions in the UK in Questions on 13 May. Despite the encouraging figures which she has produced, the scale of the debts is still staggering. As of a year ago, the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, for example, owed £196,630 in parking fines, China owed over £646,000 in unpaid national non-domestic rates, and the US embassy owed over £15 million in unpaid congestion charges. Will my noble friend confirm that the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations requires all diplomats to pay all charges, taxes and fines for which they are liable, and that that includes the congestion charge?

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