Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will bring forward proposals to make military exports to Saudi Arabia contingent on human rights reform in that country.

The Government of Saudi Arabia faces a number of security challenges, with concerns arising from the fractious regional situation and external sources, and so have a legitimate requirement for types of equipment in the performance of its sovereign defensive responsibilities.

The Government remains confident that the UK has a thorough and robust export control and licensing system, which distinguishes between exports for legitimate defence and security purposes and exports that breach the Criterion 2 threshold: a clear risk that they might be used for internal repression, violation of human rights or gender-based violence. These considerations are specifically identified in the Government’s Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria, Criteria against which all applications for strategic export control licences for military goods, including arms and dual-use goods are assessed on a case-by-case basis.

The Government is satisfied that the currently extant licences for Saudi Arabia are compliant with the UK’s export licensing criteria.