2 The Government's "United Kingdom
Strategic Export Controls Annual Report 2010" (HC 1402)
5. In the Committees' 2011 Report we pointed out
that the Government had apparently downgraded the status of its
Strategic Export Controls Annual Report. We noted that the previous
Government had produced more substantial Reports and they had
been presented to the House of Commons by the four Secretaries
of State. In contrast the Strategic Export Controls Annual Report
in 2009 had been presented to the House of Commons in July 2010
by four junior Ministers and was less substantial than previous
Reports. When Ministers were questioned on this matter last year
they argued that the Report was shorter than previous Reports
because it was more concisely written. We recommended that the
Strategic Export Controls Annual Reports should in future be presented
to the House of Commons by the four Secretaries of State rather
than by junior Ministers.[6]
We were glad to note that following our recommendation, the United
Kingdom Strategic Export Controls Report 2010 was presented
to Parliament in July 2011 by the four Secretaries of State.[7]
Additionally, we analysed the content of the last four Strategic
Export Controls Annual Reports; two of which had been produced
by the previous Government and two by the present Government.
This analysis showed that the Reports produced by the present
Government, while not having as many pages as the Reports produced
by the previous Government, did have approximately the same content
in the main body of the Report, but had significantly less information
in the Annexes.
6. We recommend
that the Government's United Kingdom Strategic Export Controls
Annual Report continues to be presented to the House of Commons
by the Secretaries of State for Business, Innovation and Skills,
Defence, Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and International Development.
7. We further
recommend that the Secretaries of State should include in their
Annual Report information, not already published by the Government,
that will assist Parliament and the wider public in understanding
the Government arms export and arms control procedures, legislation
and policies.
8. The Committees decided to scrutinise the Government's
United Kingdom Strategic Export Controls Annual Report 2010
in unprecedented detail. The Committees' questions were submitted
by the Chairman of the Committees with his letter to the Foreign
Secretary of 19 October 2011 requesting the answers no later than
30 November.[8] In the
event the answers were not received until the Foreign Secretary's
letter to the Committees' Chairman of 7 January 2012.[9]
The Foreign Secretary said that this delay was due to administrative
error, for which he expressed regret. One of the Committees' questions
was why the Case Studies detailed in the Government's Annual Report—body
armour and night vision goggles to Afghanistan, a single armoured
personnel carrier to Nigeria, and shields and body armour to Kyrgyzstan[10]—were
all relatively non-controversial and insubstantial, compared to
the previous Government's 2008 Case Study of the decision to approve
an export licence for armoured personnel carriers to Libya.[11]
The complete text of the Committees' questions and the Government's
answers can be found in Annex 11.
9. In his Foreword to the FCO's annual Human Rights
Report for 2011, published in April 2012, the Foreign Secretary
said that the FCO would in future be updating sections of the
report quarterly on the FCO's website.[12]
10. The Committees
conclude that the extensive information provided by the Government
to the Committees' questions on the Government's United
Kingdom Export Controls Annual Report 2010 will be
of considerable benefit to Parliament and the wider public. The
Committees, however, recommend that the Government needs to eradicate
the administrative error that led to the Government's answers
being significantly delayed. The Committees further recommend
that in future Annual Reports the Government should publish Case
Studies of licence applications that are of genuine policy difficulty,
such as the previous Government's 2008 Case Study of an application
to export armoured personnel carriers to Libya. The Committees
also recommend that the Government include in its Annual Report
not only its information required for the UN Register of Conventional
Arms but also the information submitted by the UK Government for
the EU's Annual Report of exports of military technology and equipment.
Finally, the Committees also recommend that, following the Foreign
Secretary's decision to update sections of the FCO's annual Human
Rights report on the FCO's website quarterly, the Government should
state in its Response to this Report what quarterly website updating
it will carry out on the United Kingdom Strategic Export Controls
Annual Report.
6 Committees on Arms Export Controls, First Joint Report
of Session 2010-12, Scrutiny of Arms Export Controls (2011): UK
Strategic Export Controls Annual Report 2009, Quarterly reports
for 2010, licensing policy and review of export control legislation,
HC686, paras 5-6 Back
7
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Department for
International Development, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and
Ministry of Defence, United Kingdom Strategic Export Controls
Annual Report 2010, HC 1402 Back
8
Ev143 - Letter to the Foreign Secretary dated 19 October 2011 Back
9
Annex 11 - Letter from the Foreign Secretary dated 7 January 2012 Back
10
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Department for
International Development, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and
Ministry of Defence, United Kingdom Strategic Export Controls
Annual Report 2010, HC 1402, pp 14-16 Back
11
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Department for
International Development, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and
Ministry of Defence, United Kingdom Strategic Export Controls
Annual Report 2008, Cm 7662, pp 13-14 Back
12
FCO, Human Rights and Democracy: The 2011 Foreign and Commonwealth
Office Report, Cm 8339, April 2012, p 7 Back
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