Further memorandum from the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office
I have pleasure in enclosing responses to the
questions set out in your letter of 6 May on the Quarterly Report
for October to December 2007 and follow-up to earlier correspondence.
This is a consolidated response from the FCO
and BERR.
* * *
SECTION C: QUESTIONS
FOLLOWING UP
THE LETTER
OF 14 APRIL
2008
5. Application no 82090 (Jordan). How many
guns were licensed for export?
1,600.
6. Application no 82787 (Oman). How many guns
were licensed for export?
450.
SECTION D: OTHER
MATTERS
7. Will the Government publish the new Criterion
8 methodology (para 5 of the FCO's letter of 14 April 2008)
The new Criterion 8 methodology will be published
in the 2007 Annual Report on Strategic Export Controls.
8. In recent evidence to the Committees (Q
53, 20 March 2008) EGAD criticised the operation of the SPIRE
as there was no help line and no named officers to contact where
an application for a licence was made, despite an assurance that
details of a named officer would be provided. The Committees would
be grateful for the Export Control Organisations' comments on
EGAD's representations
A notice to exporters was issued on 16 May 2008
(`New arrangements for contacting ECO'), explaining how to find
the Case Officer for each licence application on SPIRE. The notice
includes a list of Case Officers, their contact numbers and individual
email addresses, and is also on SPIRE. However, all information
that has been requested by the ECO should still be submitted via
SPIRE and not sent to individual Case Officers as this may lead
to a delay in processing applications.
The ECO did introduce a helpline to assist exporters
with enquiries relating specifically to SPIRE in mid 2007, and
also re-introduced the general ECO Helpline in late 2007. The
introduction of the SPIRE helpline was well publicised so that
exporters would have a point of contact to help them through the
SPIRE registration process before going live in September.
The same notice referred to above also explained
that, to provide a more efficient service to exporters, these
helplines are in the process of being merged, and exporters now
have one point of contact for all enquiries. The telephone number
of the helpline is 020 7215 4594, fax 020 7215 2635, or enquirers
can continue to email using eco.help@berr.gsi.gov.uk.
9. How long does the Export Control Organisation
keep records of applications and licences?
This is currently under review, and we will
write to the Committee once we have an agreed and updated policy
in place.
10. In light of the Knight case, can convicted
criminals be barred from using open licences?
We would refer to the evidence given by Mr Wicks
to the Committee on 19 May 2008. Convicted Criminals who are serving
a custodial service are not, under HM Prison Service rules, permitted
to run a business from prison. Endeavour Resources, Mr Knight's
company, has had its OGEL registration suspended, for a period
of 4 years from the date of his conviction.
July 2008
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