Arms Trade: Saudi Arabia
(asked on 6th October 2020) - View Source
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what the total value was of arms exports from the UK to Saudi Arabia in 2019.
Defence and security export statistics by region – rather than individual countries – are published on GOV.UK annually
However, HM Government publishes Official Statistics about export licences granted and refused each quarter. The publicly available data on GOV.UK currently includes details of licences up to 31st March 2020; data for the period 1st April 2020 to 30th June 2020 will be published on 13th October 2020.
Licensing data does not provide an accurate export value as value needs only to be declared for Standard Individual Export Licences (SIELs). Nonetheless, export values declared in SIELs for military exports granted to Saudi Arabia in 2019 were £638,236,675; and in the last 10 years were £9,262,769,732. Licences granted are not necessarily a measure of exports shipped in a given period though – as they are valid for between two and five years – and some such licences expire before they are used so, in these circumstances, exporters must submit a further application, which can result in double counting.