1 Introduction
1. The four Committees that comprise Committees on
Arms export Controls (CAEC)[2]
are: Business, Innovation and Skills, Defence, Foreign
Affairs and International Development. All Members of the four
Committees are entitled to attend the CAEC, although for practical
purposes each of the four Committees usually nominates three or
four Members to receive CAEC papers and attend meetings of the
CAEC.
2. Our main work throughout the year is to review
Government policy on licensing arms exports, licensing decisions,
and international arms control treaties. This work means that
we examine the policy and licensing decisions related to military
items going to sensitive destinations or end users. For
example, we assess the licensing decisions that allow or refuse
applications against the consolidated EU and national arms-exporting
criteria and where necessary pursue individual cases: we may request
further written information from Government departments or raise
the issues in oral evidence with Ministers.
3. This is our first Report since the Coalition Government
took office in May 2010. As in previous years, we have reviewed
the Government's policy and administration on arms exports, including
the performance of the Export Control Office, changes to the legislative
framework, individual decisions related to licence decisions and
exports to countries of concern. We have also considered the
Government's arms export policy in relation to recent uprisings
in North Africa and the wider Middle East and authoritarian regimes
worldwide.
4. We issued our terms of reference on 11 November
2010 and in response received written evidence from the UK Working
Group on Arms (UKWG)[3],
the Export Group on Aerospace and Defence (EGAD), the Campaign
Against Arms Trade and Transparency International. We heard evidence
from two sets of witnesses in December 2010: the UK Working Group
on Arms (UKWG) and the Export Group on Aerospace and Defence (EGAD).
We also heard evidence from two Ministers and their respective
teams in January 2011: Mr Mark Prisk MP, Minister for Business
and Enterprise at the Department for Innovation and Skills (BIS)
and officials from the Export Control Organisation; and Mr Alistair
Burt MP, the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
and FCO officials. The oral and written evidence is printed with
this report. All evidence is also available on the internet. We
are grateful to those who provided this evidence and to our Special
Adviser, Dr Sibylle Bauer.
2 Until March 2008 the Committees were known as the
"Quadripartite Committee". Back
3
UKWG is an NGO and lobby group, comprising representatives from
the NGOs, Amnesty-UK, British American Security and Information
Council (BASIC), Oxfam GB and Saferworld. Back
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