Diplomatic Missions: Unpaid Charges

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Wednesday 16th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I detect some co-ordination across the House this afternoon. We consider these to be debts, and we would like them to be paid. Like TfL and the Mayor of London, we continue to use our diplomatic best efforts to bring that about.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, one of the highlights of the diplomatic calendar in London is the Foreign Office diplomatic reception. Given that many of those attending will be those who have refused to pay, should we not start instituting a drop-off and collection fee at King Charles Street, just until we get our money back? Given that, as the noble Lord said, the United States is possibly the biggest offender and that President Trump would certainly not want a reputation of not paying fines, when he comes for the state visit, can we ensure that this is part of the agenda, so that there is no congestion in the city of London from the American delegation and they pay us what they owe?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

There are a whole range of measures that we can consider, and I certainly take on board the one that the noble Lord has mentioned. Others include encouraging the use of public transport, cycling or walking around our wonderful city. But he suggests that we raise these matters directly with our counterparts and I can assure him that we do just that.