Further memorandum from the Ministry of
Defence
The response below covers an issue raised during
the Westminster Hall Debate on Strategic Export Controls, held
on 22 February 2007 and referred to in DTI's reply to you on 14
March on the same subject.
Sir John Stanley asked why it would take
until 2015 to withdraw dumb cluster bombs from the British Armed
Forces inventory and, in light of incidents in Lebanon, whether
the Government would consider accelerating this phasing out.
On 4 December 2006 we stated in a Written Ministerial
Statement the UK position on cluster munitions and that we would
withdraw dumb variants by the middle of the next decade. On 15
December, in debate in the House of Lords, we explained that we
were examining the possibility of bringing this date forward.
We have now completed our assessment and, as we stated in a Written
Ministerial Statement on 20 March 2007, we will now withdraw our
dumb cluster munition variants with immediate effect.
March 2007
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