Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Wassenaar Arrangement in controlling the dual-use export of (a) artificial intelligence, (b) quantum computing, (c) biometric tools and data and (d) intangible technology transfers.

The Wassenaar Arrangement is a long-established multilateral export control regime which operates by consensus. It includes the majority of states producing these advanced technologies and draws on expertise from all members to develop control lists, which are updated annually. These lists are used by participating states to implement their export controls and, as the Wassenaar Arrangement sets the global standard for good practice, non-member states also incorporate the control lists into their domestic legislation.

The UK is an active member of the Wassenaar Arrangement and other multilateral export control regimes. We submit and review proposals related to these advanced technologies, share best practice, and participate in outreach to non-member states. We are co-ordinating with G7 and other partners to strengthen export controls, including to update multilateral export control regime lists to keep pace with rapid technological developments.