Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the value of UK arms exports to Saudi Arabia in (1) 2015, (2) 2016, and (3) 2017.

Government data on the value of exports does not differentiate sufficiently between military and non-military exports.

However, the Government publishes Official Statistics (on a quarterly and annual basis) of licences granted for military exports on GOV.UK. This data includes the value of exports licensed where this is known. Licensing data for 2015, 2016 and 2017 indicates the following values for military exports to Saudi Arabia:

2015: £2,856,814,952

2016: £680,288,434

2017: £1,120,427,691 (January-June)

The value of exports licensed each quarter is not necessarily a measure of actual exports shipped in a given period because licences are valid for between two and five years, and because exporters only declare values for a subsection of export licences (Standard Individual Export Licences). Additionally, some licences expire before they are fully used and in these circumstances exporters must apply for a new (duplicate) licence, which can result in a significant element of double counting in some reporting periods. Over the period 2015, 2016 and 2017 (January-June) at least £2.4 billion of the total value of military
exports licensed (£4.6 billion) is attributable to double counting because of duplicate licences.