4 The Committees' questions on the
Government's quarterly information on arms export licences
16. The Export Control Organisation (ECO) within
the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, publishes
details of the arms export licences that have been granted, refused
or appealed for each Quarter. These are known as the Pivot Reports.
The information in these Reports is of great importance, and the
Quarterly Reports are subject to detailed scrutiny by the Committees.
This invariably results in the Committees putting a series of
detailed questions to the Government, to which the Government
provides answers to the CAEC.
17. The Committees wish to see the maximum disclosure
by the Government of information about UK arms exports that is
consistent with safeguarding the UK's security and trade interests.
The Chairman of the CAEC wrote to the Foreign Secretary on 24
October 2011 strongly resisting the Government's decision to classify
as "Restricted for CAEC eyes only" the entirety of its
answers to the Committees' questions on the Quarter 3 and Quarter
4 2010 Arms Export Licensing information provided by the Government.[21]
The Chairman, Sir John Stanley, proposed a substantial declassification
of the information the Committees had received. The Chairman wrote
a further letter to the Foreign Secretary on 16 December 2011
pressing for a reply to his letter of the 24 October.[22]
No reply having been received by the time the Foreign Secretary
gave Oral evidence to the Committees on 7 February 2012, the Chairman
again pressed the Foreign Secretary for the outstanding reply.[23]
The reply was finally received in the Foreign Secretary's letter
to the Chairman of 21 February in which the Foreign Secretary
accepted in large part the disclosure proposals put to the Government
by the Chairman on behalf of the Committees.[24]
The Committees' questions on the Government's arms export licensing
decisions and the Government's non-classified answers for Quarter
3 and Quarter 4 of 2010 and for Quarters 1, 2, and 3 for 2011
are set out in full in Annex 1 of this Report. This information
is being made public in the Committees' Report for the first time.
18. We conclude
that the Government was right to accept the Chairman of the CAEC's
representations on behalf of the Committees that to a substantial
degree the Government's answers to the Committees' questions on
the Government's Quarterly arms export reports could be declassified
and thereby made available to Parliament and the wider public
in this Report as from Q3 2010 for the first time. The Committees
recommend that both in the Government's Quarterly arms export
reports and in its answers to the Committees' questions on those
reports, the Government should provide the maximum disclosure
of information on a non-classified basis consistent with safeguarding
the UK's security and trade interests.
Errors in export controls to Somalia
19. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at
the FCO, Alistair Burt, wrote to the Committees on 6 February
2012 to inform the Committees that following their questions on
the Quarter 2 2011 Report the Government had found that there
had been a potential breach of UN sanctions relating to an export
licence issued for Somalia.[25]
The licence was for body armour for a humanitarian de-mining organisation.
When the application was initially assessed the export had been
considered as temporary when it should have been considered as
permanent. Due to this error an incorrect exemption under the
arms embargo was applied and the UN Sanctions Committee was not
notified of the proposed export. Following discovery of this error
a review of all export licence applications for Somalia was undertaken
and a further two cases in 2009 where the Sanctions Committee
should have been notified were identified. Both of these licences
authorised the export of armoured vehicles for the protection
of UNICEF staff.
20. The Minister advised the Committees that a review
of export licences for a number of other embargoed countries from
1 January 2009 onwards had been carried out. He stated in his
letter that: "I am satisfied that these three cases were
isolated administrative errors and there is no wider systemic
failure in our handling of export licence applications for embargoed
countries."[26]
21. The CAEC
concludes that the Government was correct in informing the Committees
of a potential breach by the UK Government of UN sanctions relating
to three export licences issued for Somalia after 1 January 2009.
The Committees recommend that in its Response to this Report the
Government provides an assurance to the Committees that they will
be informed, and informed promptly, of any future actual or potential
breaches of arms export controls by the UK Government, whether
in relation to embargoed countries or in relation to any or all
UK strategic export controls that are in place.
21 Ev 148 - Letter to the Foreign Secretary dated 24
October 2011 Back
22
Ev 151 - Letter to the Foreign Secretary dated 16 December 2011
Back
23
Q 108 Back
24
Ev 167 - Letter from the Foreign Secretary dated 21 February 2012 Back
25
Ev 164 - Letter from Alistair Burt dated 6 February 2012 Back
26
Ev 164 - Letter from Alistair Burt dated 6 February 2012 Back
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