Mark Hoban MP
Financial Secretary to the Treasury
HM Treasury
1 Horseguards Road
London
SW1A 2HQ

16th August 2011

Dear Mark,

I am writing about Amnesty International's ‘Stop Explosive Investments' campaign and, in particular, the investment policy of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) with regards to organisations which are known to produce cluster bombs, a devastatingly violent form of weaponry. I would like to take this opportunity to express my support for Amnesty International's campaign against UK banks investing in cluster bomb producers.

As you will be aware, the use of cluster bombs is prohibited internationally under the Convention on Cluster Munitions, signed by 109 states and ratified by 60. According to Amnesty International, who draw from a recent report produced by Cluster Munitions Coalition members, the Royal Bank of Scotland, along with others in the UK, provide loans and investments to cluster bomb producers, which between them reaches up to £800m.

Given that 84% of RBS is owned by the state, and as such by the taxpayers themselves, the public, and thus the Government on behalf of the public, should have a measure of responsibility for the bank's investment policy.

I urge you to do whatever you can to support the campaign against investments in cluster bomb producers by organisations in the UK, with particular reference, of course, to RBS. It is important that the Royal Bank of Scotland is forced to reconsider the decision to lend money to, and invest in, companies which produce such widely condemned weaponry.

I look forward to hearing your response to this letter and to learning what concrete action the Treasury is taking to ensure that RBS and other British banks do not invest in internationally prohibited weaponry.

Yours sincerely,

Caroline Lucas, MP, Brighton Pavilion