Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, on what date she instructed her Department to (a) initiate a reassessment of exports of riot control equipment to the US and (b) suspend the licencing of new or pending export applications until that reassessment had been completed.

It is standard practice in the Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU) to convene a meeting of officials across government departments when a change of circumstances has occurred in any country.

ECJU have been monitoring the situation in the United States since George Floyd was killed on 25th May 2020 and such a meeting was convened on 4th June 2020.

It was decided at the meeting that, in light of the situation there, a reassessment should be undertaken by officials, in order to assess whether relevant licences were consistent with the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria and, in particular, the requirement under Criterion 2a not to grant licences if there is a clear risk that the items might be used for internal repression.

Officials also decided, at that meeting, that the assessment of pending licences would not be finalised until that reassessment had been completed.