Diplomatic Missions: Unpaid Charges

Lord Faulkner of Worcester Excerpts

Wednesday 16th July 2025 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Faulkner of Worcester]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what responses they have received to the letters sent by the Protocol Directorate of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in April and May to diplomatic missions and international organisations about unpaid non-domestic rates, parking fines and London Congestion Charges.

[The Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Baroness Chapman of Darlington) (Lab)]

My Lords, of 31 responses received, some agreed to settle debts, others disputed charges and some refused to pay the London congestion charge, claiming exemption under the Vienna convention. FCDO action since 3 April 2025 has helped reduce national non-domestic rates debt by £287,142, car parking fines debt by £7,035 and London congestion charge debt by £7,430. Further details will be published in a Written Ministerial Statement later this year.

[Lord Faulkner of Worcester (Lab)]

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?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

My noble friend is right, and it is the Government’s position, consistent with that of the previous Government, that these are charges, not taxes, and should be paid.