APPENDIX VII
Correspondence between the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office and the Clerk of the Committees: Provision
of Information
Letter from the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office
Thank you for your letters of 23 January and
7 February containing a number of further questions based on the
information that we provided on 18 December 2002.
You will recall that during his meeting with
Dr Berry on 18 December 2002, the Foreign Secretary made it clear
that we would set a limit on the maximum number of hours we could
spend on responding to questions from the Committee in relation
to the 2001 Annual Report. This limit was set to minimise the
effect of taking staff away from the licensing process itself.
We have now reached that limit.
The Foreign Secretary therefore regrets that
we will be unable to supply a written response to your request.
7 February 2003
Letter from the Clerk of the Committees
Dr Berry was disappointed by the FCO's response.
Having studied the answers which you have supplied and the questions
which you have declined to answer, he is clear that the information
which has been requested is necessary for the Quadripartite Committee
to be able to do its job properly. Indeed, many of these questions
were designed to clarify incomplete or unclear earlier answers.
I have therefore been asked to repeat the request
for answers to the outstanding questions, but, in recognition
of the pressure which officials may be under between now and the
evidence session on 27 February, to ask that if the replies cannot
be provided before that session they should be provided shortly
thereafter. It does not seem unreasonable to suppose that the
Foreign Secretary's briefing for the evidence session will include
material on questions which you already know that the Quadripartite
Committee is interested in pursuing.
13 February 2003
Letter from the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office
2001 ANNUAL REPORT ON STRATEGIC EXPORT CONTROLS:
REQUESTS FOR WRITTEN ANSWER
The Foreign Secretary discussed the issues raised
in your letter of 13 February with Dr Berry on the evening of
19 February.
The Foreign Secretary emphasised his desire
to be as transparent as possible. The Government's arms export
licensing system was subject to closer scrutiny than any other
in the world. But the volume of the Committee's questions on individual
licences in the 2001 Annual Report had been much greater than
in previous years. The FCO had provided answers to the Committee's
original 96 questions: this work had taken some 900 man-hours.
We now faced a further 36 questions. There were implications for
the effective operation of the licensing system: the same officials
producing answers for the Committee were also trying to process
licence applications in a timely way.
The Foreign Secretary and Dr Berry agreed that:
— the FCO would not offer further written
answers before the Committee's oral evidence session with the
Foreign Secretary on 27 February;
— the Foreign Secretary would try to
respond to any of the outstanding questions raised by Committee
members at that session;
— Dr Berry would consider, in the light
of the oral evidence session, which answers to the remaining questions
were necessary for the Committee's Report;
— we should work with the Committee
to find a way to reduce the volume of questions in future years.
20 February 2003
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