ally to the Brussels Convention and has converted the figure
in round terms at the time of the legislation.
22. It is thought that this may not have been a strictly correct
way of proceeding because Article 3 requires that particular sums
expressed in "units of account" should be available.
It would appear
that United Kingdom legislation may well have provided rather
less than it should at any time when the value of 120m units of
account exceeds £50m. It is true that section 16 (3) provides
that claims which exceed the liability of the operator and can not
be settled out of moneys made available under section 18 shall be
referred to the "appropriate authority" defined in that section and satisfied "to such extent and out of funds provided by such means
as Parliament may determine", but that does not seem to be a
an entirely satisfactory way of meeting the obligations imposed
by the Convention. The Act was of course drawn at a time of fixed exchange rates.
23.
However that may be, the Brussels Protocol does now provide (Article C) for additional words to be included in Article 3 of the
Convention which do make provision for the date and rate of conversion of SDRS into national currency; the date of the incident and the
method of conversion used by the IMF for its own purposes on that date..
24. It is proposed to maintain the scheme provided by section 18 of the 1965 Act, but to alter the limit in line with the changes to
Article 3 of the Brussels Convention.
provision for a new compensation limit.
Counsel is asked to make
For the reasons given above,
it seems necessary to amend section 18 to set that limit by reference
. to a number of SDRS and to provide for a means of converting them into
sterling.
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