Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps he is taking to ensure that information on licences granted by the Export Control Joint Unit is (a) accessible and (b) comprehensible to the public.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government publishes Official Statistics on a quarterly and annual basis on export licences granted and refused on GOV.UK. These include a country level data report, providing data per country and a statistical commentary report that summarises and provides context and explanation for the key data trends. These are available to view at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data.
A searchable database that allows bespoke searches of this information, based on specific licence types, destinations and goods, is also available at https://www.exportcontroldb.trade.gov.uk/sdb2/fox/sdb/SDBHOME.
All information published on GOV.UK must comply with guidelines set by the Government’s Digital Service. This includes a mandatory requirement for all published information to be written in plain English to ensure that it is clear and concise.
We are reviewing all export control content on GOV.UK to ensure it is as clear and simple as possible for exporters and other members of the public.
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what arms sales between the UK and Qatar were carried out from 2010 to 2017.
Answered by Mark Garnier
Arms sales data by region are published annually on GOV.UK.
The Government publishes Official Statistics about export licences granted and refused each quarter. The data currently includes details of licences up to 31 December 2016. Data for the period 1 January 2017 to 31 March 2017 will be published on 18 July 2017. The data can be accessed on GOV.UK
Licences granted are not necessarily a measure of exports shipped in a given period as they are valid for between two and five years. Licensing data only provides a partial indication of sales as exporters only declare export values for a subsection of licences (Standard Individual Export Licences). Some licences expire before they are used and in these circumstances exporters must submit a further application, which can result in an element of double counting.
The value of arms export licences issued from 2010 to 2017 are:-
Year Value (£)
2010 £3,082,468
2011 £439,488
2012 £354,419
2013 £4,255,887
2014 £10,547,414
2015 £140,925,288
2016 £1,822,648