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arms export policies

Further questions to Government on arms export policies

9 November 2012

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The Chairman of the Committees on Arms Export Controls, Sir John Stanley, wrote to the Foreign Secretary, on 7 November 2012 requesting answers to points and questions arising from the Government’s response (Cm 8441) to the Committees’ 2012 Report (HC419-I and HC419-II) published on 13 July 2012.

The issues on which the Committees are requiring additional information and answers to questions from the Government include:

  • Torture end-use control
  • Re-export controls and undertakings
  • Licensed production overseas
  • The Consolidated Criteria for arms export licences
  • Enforcement of arms export controls
  • The Intra-Community Transfer (ICT) Directive on arms transfers within the EU
  • The Arms Trade Treaty
  • Sub-strategic and tactical nuclear weapons
  • Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty
  • The National Counter-Proliferation Strategy for 2012-2015
  • Overseas Security and Justice Assistance (OSJA) Human Rights Guidance
  • Surveillance technology and equipment
  • Export of Tasers
  • The Government’s Arab Spring arms export policy review
  • Arms export licence revocations
  • Arms exports to countries of concern, including Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen, Argentina and China
  • Extension of the Government’s arms export policy review to authoritarian regimes and countries of concern worldwide.

The Chairman of the Committees, Sir John Stanley, said

"The questions put to the Government in my latest letter to the Foreign Secretary constitute an important element in the Committees’ continuing vigorous scrutiny of the Government’s arms exports and arms control policies prior to the Committees taking Oral Evidence from both the Foreign Secretary and the Business Secretary on December 19."