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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