Arms Trade: Saudi Arabia

(asked on 23rd March 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of making future deliveries of arms and military equipment to Saudi Arabia conditional on the government of Saudi Arabia making efforts to achieve peace in Yemen.


Answered by
Baroness Fairhead Portrait
Baroness Fairhead
This question was answered on 10th April 2018

All export licence applications are carefully assessed on a case by case basis against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria, taking into account all relevant factors at the time of application. A licence will not be issued for any country if to do so would be a breach of the Criteria. The policy remains as announced to parliament in a Written Ministerial Statement on 25 March 2014.

http://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2014-03-25/debates/14032566000018/ConsolidatedEUAndNationalArmsExportLicensingCriteria

The key test for the Government for our continued arms exports to Saudi Arabia in relation to International Humanitarian Law (IHL) is whether there is a clear risk that those weapons might be used in a serious violation of IHL. The situation is kept under careful and continual review.

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