1 Introduction
1. Since 1999 the Business and Enterprise,[1]
Defence, Foreign Affairs and International Development Committees
have worked together to examine the Government's strategic export
control system and policies. This arrangement, which is known
as the "Committees on Arms Export Controls", enables
the House of Commons to conduct ongoing scrutiny of a complex
and controversial area of government policy.
2. Our Report this year follows the pattern of
earlier years: a review of the policy, enforcement and the annual
and quarterly reports on strategic export controls published since
our last Report, combined with a detailed examination of a number
of aspects of export control which follow up the issues we have
raised in previous years.
The Government's Review of Export
Controls
3. As examined in detail in our previous two
Reports, in 2007 the Government undertook post-legislative scrutiny
of the orders and regulations made under the Export Control Act
2002. It launched a public consultation document, 2007 Review
of Export Control Legislation, and invited responses on the impact
and effectiveness of the controls and on a number of options for
change. [2]
4. The outcome of the 2007 Review of Export Controls
consisted of three tranches of legislation. We were keen to make
a contribution and have sent our comments on all three tranches
to the Government. The first, which came into force in April 2008,
was the Export Control (Security and Para-military Goods) Order
2008 which extended the controls to cover the export of, and trading
in, hand-held, spiked batons, known as "sting sticks".[3]
The second Order was the Trade in Goods (Categories of Controlled
Goods) Order 2008, which extended extra-territorial controls on
trading in arms.[4] It
came into operation in October 2008. The third tranche was the
Export Control Order 2008 which came into force in April 2009.[5]
In its Response to our last Report, the Government stated that
further legislation might be necessary at a later date.[6]
We comment in Part Two on the timescale given to us by the Government
for consideration of the draft legislation.
Review of annual and quarterly
reports on strategic export controls
5. We have reviewed the quarterly reports on
strategic export controls issued since our last Report. Once again,
we had hoped to be able to "catch up" on our review
of annual reports on strategic export controls. In the past the
Government produced the annual report about seven months after
the end of the calendar year around the time (in July) that we
are usually finalising our Report. This has meant that we have
not been able to carry out any detailed scrutiny of the annual
report until the following year. As at the date we agreed our
Report, 20 July 2009, the Government had not yet published its
2008 Annual Report on United Kingdom Strategic Export Controls.
Therefore, it was once again too late for us to scrutinise it
in this Parliamentary session and our Report this year is limited
to a review of the 2007 Annual Report on Strategic Export Controls.[7]
6. As well as the process of taking oral and
written evidence on policy and the operation of the legislation,
we have continued to explore issues raised by particular licences;
we have, for example, assessed whether there has been any inconsistency
in the issuing and refusal of licences to a particular country
and whether other licence approvals or refusals for which the
rationale is not obvious have been determined in accordance with
the EU Code of Conduct on Arms Exports and the UK's National Export
Licensing Criteria.[8]
This process is detailed and, necessarily, often confidential,
though where the Government has provided a response without a
security marking we have published it.[9]
We have drawn on the information received to make points on policy
issues, and we shall keep certain cases under review.
1 In November 2007 the Trade and Industry Committee
was replaced by the Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
Committee (Votes and Proceedings, 25 July 2007, pp 208-209), the
name of which was shortened to the Business and Enterprise Committee
in March 2008 (Votes and Proceedings, 11 March 2008, p 370). Back
2
Department of Trade and Industry, Export Control Act 2002:
2007 Review of Export Control Legislation: A Consultation Document,
June 2007 at http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file39949.pdf Back
3
SI 2008/639, which amended the Export of Goods, Transfer of Technology
and Provision of Technical Assistance, (Control) Order 2003 (SI
2003/2764) and the Trade in Goods (Control) Order 2003 (SI 2003/2765) Back
4
SI 2008/1805 Back
5
SI 2008/3231 Back
6
Ministry of Defence, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Department
for International Development and the Department for Business,
Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, Response of the Secretaries
of State for Defence, Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, International
Development and Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform to
the Reports from the Business and Enterprise, Defence, Foreign
Affairs and International Development Committees Session 2007-08,
Cm 7485, p 3. Back
7
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Department for International
Development, Ministry of Defence and the Department for Business,
Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, United Kingdom Strategic
Export Controls: Annual Report 2007, Cm 7451, July 2008 Back
8
HC Deb, 26 October 2000, cols 199-203W; and Foreign and Commonwealth
Office, Department for International Development, Ministry of
Defence and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory
Reform, United Kingdom Strategic Export Controls: Annual Report
2006, Cm 7141, July 2007, pp 70-72 Back
9
For example, Ev 66 Back
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