Israel: Arms Exports

Lord Wolfson of Tredegar Excerpts

Tuesday 25th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

I can only reiterate what I have just said, which is that this is a matter for the courts, not the Government, to determine. However, we have made our own decisions about the clear risk of serious breaches of international humanitarian law, which have led us to suspend the licences being debated.

[Lord Wolfson of Tredegar (Con)]

My Lords, on 15 October my noble friend Lord Howard of Lympne asked a Written Question of the Attorney-General, who I am pleased to see in his place. He asked whether the Attorney-General’s advice was that licences to export arms to Israel had to be suspended. The Attorney’s reply cited the usual convention that his advice was confidential. But, on 5 September, the noble Baroness, Lady Chapman of Darlington, referred expressly to the substance of that advice when explaining to this House why arms exports had to be suspended. Her answer therefore both breached the convention on Attorney-Generals’ advice and contradicted the Foreign Secretary’s explanation, because he said in the other place that the Government had a “discretion” on whether to suspend the licences. Can we now finally have a clear answer to a clear question? Were the Government legally required to suspend those arms export licences or did they have a discretion that they chose to exercise in a particular way?

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

As I have made clear, our assessment was that there was a clear risk that there would be serious violations of international humanitarian law, so my noble friend was correct in her decision. The strategic export licensing criteria are cumulative, in that before a licence can be issued it must comply with all the criteria. Criterion 5 of the SELC is a separate criterion that allows the Government to weigh national security concerns when considering whether to license an export, and as such provides a discretionary basis on which to refuse exports. There is no scope to balance criterion 2(c) on international humanitarian issues against criterion 5.