Scrutiny of Arms Export Controls (2009): UK Strategic Export Controls Annual Report 2007, Quarterly Reports for 2008, licensing policy and review of export control legislation - Defence Committee Contents


Memorandum from Ian Pearson MP, then Economic and Business Minister at the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform

  Further to my letter dated 19 February 2009, regarding the follow-up issues that arose during my appearance before the Committees on 21 January, I am now in a position to provide examples of where Government policy has changed towards an end user and destination (I would stress that the overall policy of case-by-case assessment against the Criteria remains the same in these cases but the result is different).

  Information received from all sources has led to tighter policies on Iran and even more so on countries that are emerging as Iranian intermediaries.

  With regard to specific companies, it can be seen from the "Iran List" on the ECO website that licences have been refused to end users in Iran where previously they have been granted. One example is Mapna Turbine Blade Company for which licences have been granted in the past. All licences are subject to case-by-case consideration but a first refusal is an indication of increasing concern. A further tranche of companies was added to the Iran List on 26 February 2009.

  Open source news of political upheaval or internal unrest often leads to blanket reviews of extant licences for a country. Recent examples of destinations for which these reviews have taken place are Thailand, Nepal (when the King was overthrown) Russia and Georgia (when the Russians entered South Ossetia and Abkhazia). Naturally all new licence applications are considered against the prevailing circumstances in the destination country.

13 March 2009





 
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Prepared 19 August 2009