Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the merits of removing members of the Saudi-led coalition from the white list of countries to which UK companies can ship Category C military goods under Open General Trade Control licences.

Countries covered by Open General licences are reviewed in circumstances where the assessment of the licensing position under the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria changes. Where we assess that the inclusion of a country on an Open General licence would no longer be consistent with the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria, we would remove it. In the case of the Saudi-led coalition, the licensing position is kept under careful and continual review.

Our export licensing system allows us to quickly respond to changing facts on the ground and we have powers to revoke, suspend or amend licences if our assessment of the licensing position changes.