Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many applications for licences to export controlled goods were denied under article 2c of the consolidated criteria; and which countries were named as the countries to export in those denied applications in each of the last 10 years.

Criterion 2c of the Government’s export licensing Criteria states that the Government will not grant a licence if there is a clear risk that the items might be used in the commission of a serious violation of international humanitarian law (IHL). Criterion 2c has been in force since the adoption by the EU of Council Common Position 2008/944/CFSP on 8 December 2008.

Since that time 295 Standard Individual Export Licence applications have been refused under Criterion 2 which covers human rights as well as international humanitarian law.

Our current database does not breakdown refusals by subsets of the Criteria so the specific information requested cannot be provided except at disproportionate cost.

The Government publishes Official Statistics (on a quarterly and annual basis) of licences granted and refused for military exports on GOV.UK. Country breakdowns can be found on these pages.

Bespoke reports (e.g. by Criterion 2) may also be produced by registering on the Strategic Export Controls Reports and Statistics Website at: https://www.exportcontroldb.trade.gov.uk/sdb2/fox/sdb/SDBHOME