Annex: Letter to Mr David Chidgey MP from
the Department of Trade and Industry 27 February 2003
I tabled a response on 3 December 2002 (Official
Report, column 685W-686) to a Parliamentary question from
you about the number of export licence applications made and granted
for leg irons and over-sized cuffs in each year since 1997.
The Quadripartite Committee of the House of
Commons have kindly brought it to my attention that there was
a possible discrepancy between the figures published in the 2001
Annual Report on Strategic Export Controls and my response to
you. Officials having now re-checked the original answer have
identified four applications for handcuffs not previously covered
by my original answer, for which I apologise.
The original search of the ECO's computer database
identified a large number of applications covering the items rating
PL5001. In order to get the number of applications down to a more
manageable level, the results were cross-referenced with the goods
description. It would appear that the four applications were not
caught by the scope of the refined search.
I am now urgently considering whether further
measures are required, including an independent check of the scope
of future computer searches to minimise the risk of such an error
re-occurring.
A revised table detailing the number of Standard
Individual Export Licence (SIEL) applications and Open Individual
Export Licence (OIEL) applications that have been made and granted,
for the proposed export of over-sized handcuffs, is set out overleaf:
Year
| Over-sized handcuffs SIEL Applications ReceivedSIELs
Issued
| Over-sized handcuffs OIEL Applications ReceivedOIELs
Issued
|
2 May 1997 to 31 December 1997
| 4
| 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 1998 | 10 | 10
| 0 | 0 |
| 1999 | 7 | 6
| 0 | 0 |
| 2000 | 9 | 5
| 1 | 0 |
| 2001 | 8 | 6
| 0 | 0 |
1 January 2002 to 15 November 2002
|
7 | 6 | 0 | 0
|
I am placing a copy of this letter in the Libraries of the
House.
| 
