Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of halting arms licences for export to foreign governments for which there is a demonstrable risk of complicity in international law violations.

All export licence applications are reviewed against the UK’s Strategic Export Licensing Criteria (SELC). These state that the Government will not issue export licences if there is a clear risk that the items might be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL).

We also keep all our extant licences (which typically last for two years) under continual review on this basis.

This government will take whatever action is appropriate in the specific circumstances, including amending, suspending or revoking export licences.