Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2018 to Question 126450, whether his statement that the Defence and Security Organisation and the Export Control Joint Unit conduct their business entirely separately is consistent with the statement in the United Kingdom Strategic Export Controls Annual Report 2016 that the Export Control Joint Unit works in close partnership with the Defence and Security Organisation.

The Export Control Joint Unit is not involved in any aspect of export promotion and DSO is not involved or consulted in export licensing decisions.

Regarding working in close partnership, the annual report said "ECJU also continued to work in close partnership with DIT's Defence & Security Organisation (DSO) at regional events for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). These helped ECJU to explain export control requirements directly to defence and security businesses, reaching around 200 people, around 20% of whom were new to exporting".