House of Commons - International Development

Select Committee on International Development Eighth Report

2 THE WORK OF THE COMMITTEES

Relations between the Committees and the Government

13. We are pleased to report that the relations between the Committees and the Government have remained constructive and cooperative. Mr Gareth Thomas, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development, who responded in the debate on 27 March 2008 on our last Report took the "opportunity to celebrate the work of the Committees on strategic export controls".[33] We are grateful to the Minister for his comments.

Review of drafts of secondary legislation

14. We recommended in our last Report that any secondary legislation to implement conclusions arising from the Government's Review of Export Controls be shown in draft to our Committees.[34] We received a draft of the Trade in Goods (Categories of Controlled Goods) Order 2008 on 30 May 2008 along with a draft of the Review of Export Control Legislation (2007) Supplementary Guidance Note on Trade ("Trafficking and Brokering") in Controlled Goods.[35] The Government requested comments by 13 June. Although in the time available the Chair of the Committees was able to take informal soundings, and to provide a response, we sought an assurance that more time would be provided to scrutinise the third and final tranche of secondary legislation due to be published in draft later this year. A copy of the Chair's letter to the Minister is at Annex 1 to this Report. We conclude that two weeks to comment on the draft Trade in Goods (Categories of Controlled Goods) Order 2008 was wholly inadequate. We recommend that the Government ensure that interested parties have at least two months to comment on the drafts of the third tranche of secondary legislation implementing the Government's conclusions on the outcome of its Review of Export Controls.

Evidence and witnesses

ORAL EVIDENCE

15. In the course of this inquiry, we held four evidence sessions with: (i) the Secretary of State for Defence, Rt Hon Des Browne MP, and officials from the Ministry of Defence (MoD); (ii) the Export Group on Aerospace and Defence (EGAD);[36] (iii) the UK Working Group on Arms[37]and Transparency International (UK); and (iv) the Minister for Energy, Malcolm Wicks MP, who has responsibility for export controls, and officials from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR).

16. The evidence session with the Secretary of State for Defence was the first time that either we or our predecessor Committees had taken oral evidence directly from that department. Applications for export licences for military and dual-use goods and technology are referred by the Export Control Organisation (ECO) at BERR to the MoD as well as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development (DfID) for advice. Within the MoD, specialists, including those in equipment capability and security, and defence intelligence, consider applications against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria, particularly Criterion 4 (preservation of regional peace, security and stability), Criterion 5 (national security of the UK and of Allies, EU Members States and other friendly countries) and Criterion 7 (the existence of a risk that the equipment will be diverted within the buyer country or re-exported under undesirable conditions).[38] The MoD's role in the consideration of applications for export licences, along with the transfer of responsibility for defence trade promotion from MoD to BERR and the allegations of bribery and corruption in defence sales to the Middle East were the areas we examined with MoD.

17. We had planned to take evidence from Dr Kim Howells, Minister of State at the FCO but because of the pressures of the parliamentary programme we were not able to do so. The FCO supplied a written memorandum dealing with many of the questions that we had intended to put to the Minister during an oral evidence session.[39] We are grateful to the FCO for supplying the memorandum, which we have drawn upon in formulating our Report.

WRITTEN EVIDENCE

18. We invited written evidence[40] and we are grateful to those who made submissions. As in previous years, we sought and received replies from the Government on a wide range of matters. We also received unprompted information from the Government which it considered would inform our deliberations.[41] We are grateful to the Government for its replies and for keeping us informed of developments relevant to our inquiry. We attach to this Report all the written evidence we received—other than material with a security classification or copies of public records open to inspection at the National Archives.[42] Continuing the practice we adopted last year we have also made available on the Internet the written evidence we had received by May 2008, to assist those with an interest in our inquiry. We are grateful to all those who gave oral and written evidence and to our adviser, Dr Sibylle Bauer, who helped us evaluate the evidence.

VISITS

19. We carried out two visits in 2007-08. In September 2007 we visited DSEi (Defence Systems and Equipment International),[43] which is a biennial international defence exhibition held at the ExCeL Exhibition Centre in Docklands, London. There were 1,352 exhibitors present from 37 countries, 27 of which had National Pavilions and 85 Official Defence Delegations from 56 countries attended as guests of the UK Government. The event attracted some 25,000 international visitors.[44] We were grateful to the organiser, Reed Exhibitions, for arranging the visit and for a briefing at ExCeL. In April 2008 we visited the Port of Southampton and met officials from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Revenue and the Customs Prosecution Office. A note of our visit is annexed to this Report.[45] We found the opportunity to inspect Customs' operations at the Port useful as was the discussion with the officials. We put on record our thanks to those who arranged the visit and answered our questions.

20. We had hoped to visit the Ukrainian Parliament in March but the visit, which would have been sponsored by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, had to be postponed because of the pressure of parliamentary business at Westminster. We now hope to visit Ukraine to meet parliamentarians, ministers, officials and non-governmental organisations later in the year, to share our experience of scrutinising strategic exports.

33 HC Deb, 27 March 2008, col 163WH Back

34 HC (2006-07) 117, para 35 Back

35 Ev 68; Draft of Review of Export Control Legislation (2007) Supplementary Guidance Note on Trade ("Trafficking and Brokering") in Controlled Goods, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, May 2008 Back

36 EGAD operates under the joint auspices of the Association of Police & Public Security Suppliers (APPSS), the British Naval Equipment Association (BNEA), the Defence Manufacturers Association (DMA), the Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC) and the Society of Maritime Industries (SMI). Back

37 The Working Group is part of an international coalition of non-governmental organisations which includes Amnesty International UK, Saferworld, Oxfam GB and the Omega Research Foundation. A separate submission was made by Amnesty International UK, the Omega Research Foundation and Saferworld without Oxfam GB-Ev 60-which was not a submission from the Working Group. Back

38 Ev 42 Back

39 Ev 90 Back

40 "Strategic Export Controls", Quadripartite Committee press notice 2007-08 No. 01, 22 November 2007 Back

41 For example, Ev 69 Back

42 We received copies of several documents which were deposited, and are open for public inspection, at the National Archives, Kew. We have quoted from the documents in chapter 6. Back

43 See below, paras 147 and 148. Back

44 See also Ev 72. Back