Arms Trade: Exports

(asked on 8th October 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, for what reason the Government does not audit end user certificates used for the exporting of controlled goods.


Answered by
Graham Stuart Portrait
Graham Stuart
Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
This question was answered on 17th October 2018

Auditing end-user certificates would necessitate the introduction of post-licensing end-use checks in foreign jurisdictions. Permission from each country would be required on each occasion, negating any possibility of unannounced visits. We do not believe that auditing end-user certificates through an end-use monitoring programme would result in proportionally better, more informed export licensing decisions.

Our current approach is to focus on a rigorous risk assessment before a licence is issued to consider whether goods might be used in a way which is inconsistent with the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria, while retaining powers to revoke extant licences if circumstances dictate. This assessment looks at the information picture in the round, taking into account information from a range of information sources, including overseas diplomatic Posts. An end-user undertaking is only one part of the application assessment process and does not guarantee that a licence would be granted.

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