Question to the Department for International Trade:

, To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what accountability standards and reporting mechanisms for civilian harm the UK requires of Saudi Arabia for the exports of arms and military equipment; and what the evidence basis is for those requirements.

Licence applications for the export of arms and military equipment are rigorously assessed against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria (the ‘Consolidated Criteria’).

A key test for licensing in these circumstances is Criterion 2c of the Consolidated Criteria, which considers whether there is a clear risk that the items to be exported might be used in the commission of a serious violation of international humanitarian law. These assessments take into account all relevant sources of information, and the then Secretary of State for International Trade’s written statement of 7^th July 2020 (HCWS339) set out the methodology that is applied to credible incidents of concern in detail.