Baroness Northover
Main Page: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Baroness Goldie
My noble friend raises a very important point. As she said, the upcoming pledging conference that starts tomorrow is a very important occasion. It is important that all donors provide significant funding for the UN’s 2019 humanitarian response plan. The 2019 appeal will be the largest in the world. The Prime Minister’s announcement yesterday set a fine example: the UK has announced new aid worth £200 million. That money will feed millions of people, provide water and sanitation to those most in need, and bring the total amount committed by the UK since the start of the four-year conflict to £770 million. Going back to my noble friend’s Question, I hope that others are watching, taking note and preparing to copy us.
Baroness Northover (LD)
My Lords, the Government say that their sale of arms to Saudi Arabia falls narrowly on the right side of international humanitarian law, but the International Relations Select Committee judges that such sales are narrowly on the wrong side. Did the Foreign Secretary—the same Foreign Secretary to whom the Minister just referred—write to the German Government, as Der Spiegel reports, urging them to lift their ban? Is this what the noble Baroness, Lady Fairhead, meant last week when she said that the Government were taking this matter extremely seriously?
Baroness Goldie
The position of the United Kingdom Government in relation to exports of arms to Saudi Arabia is clear and well stated. I take this opportunity to thank the International Relations Committee of this House for a very thorough report. The report did make an observation about exports of arms to Saudi Arabia. I was interested in what the report said because it acknowledged very honestly that “fine judgements” had to be made. It also concluded, very honestly, that,
“conclusive evidence is not yet available”.
I cannot speak for the German Government but I can say on behalf of the United Kingdom Government that we take our export responsibilities very seriously and we operate one of the most robust export control regimes in the world.