If the hon. Gentleman will bear with me, I shall deal specifically with that point shortly.

At this juncture, I must remind the House that at this stage there are no official legal grounds whatsoever for the Government themselves to intervene. I can quite understand that the hon. Gentleman and others who are personally exposed to the sadness and distress which has followed the accident may wish that it were otherwise. But that is the position in international law, for international law does not provide for a State to bring a claim against another State for wrongs done to it in the person of its nationals until all local legal remedies have been exhausted, and then—and only then—if there is evidence that the claimants have been denied justice. As no court has yet reached a decision as to liability, the case remains sub judice and we are obliged to allow French legal procedures to take their course.

What we have been doing is repeatedly to urge the French Government to speed up those processes and to follow up their commitment to the principle of an overall compromise settlement by making firm offers. The Embassy in Paris has remained in close contact with the French lawyers acting for the British claimants in the case.

Following the repeated representations to which I have referred, we were told in December last, as the hon. Gentleman has recognised, that the French Treasury Solicitor had completed his study on the basis of the information available and had asked the lawyers for supplementary information to fill certain gaps in the official documents. The French Government reaffirmed their commitment to accept responsibility for their obligations and duties in this matter, in accordance with the principles of French law. They also confirmed earlier assurances that the necessary arrangements had been made to suspend the time-barring of the prosecution—a point made by the hon. Gentleman.

Contacts then took place between the lawyer representing the French Government and lawyers representing the claimants, but when no firm offer was forthcoming from the French, the Ambassador in Paris called again, on 12 January, on the Secretary-General at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on my instructions, to emphasise our increasing concern at the lack of progress.

The Secretary-General promised that he would take up the matter with the then newly-appointed Foreign Minister, M. Francois Poncet. Shortly afterwards, on 29 January—because I was far from satisfied, to put it mildly, with the whole way in which this thing was dragging on—I raised the matter personally with my French ministerial opposite number, M. Bernard-Raymond, during his official visit to London. He assured me that the matter was receiving his personal attention and that he would do all he could to persuade the appropriate authorities to conclude an early settlement.

Only last week, we heard informally that the French Government had made offers to some, but not all, of the British claimants. These offers are under study by the claimants' lawyers. Since we have not been informed of the precise content of any of them, I cannot say tonight whether they are likely to be thought acceptable.

It will in any case be for the claimants and their legal advisers and not for the British Government to decide whether an offer is acceptable in their case. But I can assure the House that we shall continue to keep a close watch on developments. I am sure that hon. Members will welcome the news of the recent offers as an indication at least of movement in a situation that we all agree has been dragging on for far too long. I hope that the fact that the hon. Member for Walsall, North has tonight so effectively put the case will help the claimants and their lawyers in what they are trying to negotiate.

In conclusion, I should like to repeat the deep sympathy of the Government for the relatives and dependants of those who lost their lives in this disaster. The Government will continue to do all that they can to encourage a speedy settlement of their claims, which will help a little to alleviate the hardship that they have suffered.