Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the Secretary of State for Trade’s letter of 16 September 2019 to the Chair of the Committees on Arms Export Control, for what reasons the Department for International Trade and Ministry of Defence were not immediately informed that the Royal Saudi Land Forces were operational in Yemen.

In line with its formal role in providing advice to DIT on the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) provided its advice on the three applications in question for export to Saudi Arabia on 2 April and 6 June 2019. On 18 June 2019, the FCO team in the Export Control Joint Unit received information from the British Embassy in Riyadh that RSLF troops were deployed in Yemen. At this stage, the FCO was unaware that the licences had not already been issued by DIT and this was before the undertaking to the court on 20 June.

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