House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills, Defence, Foreign Affairs, and International Development Committees Scrutiny of Arms Export Controls (2011): UK Strategic Export Controls Annual Report 2009, Quarterly Reports for 2010, licensing policy and review of export control legislation First Joint Report of Session 2010–11 Fourth Report from the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee of Session 2010–11 Second Report from the Defence Committee of Session 2010–11 Fifth Report from the Foreign Affairs Committee of Session 2010–11 Sixth Report from the International Development Committee of Session 2010–11 Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 22 March 2011 HC 686 Published on 5 April 2011 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £17.50 The Committees on Arms Export Controls The Business Innovation and Skills, Defence, Foreign Affairs and International Development Committees are appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, the Ministry of Defence, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Department for International Development and any associated public bodies. Current membership BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS: Mr Adrian Bailey*§, Mr Brian Binley, Paul Blomfield*, Katy Clark*, Rebecca Harris, Margot James*, Dan Jarvis, Simon Kirby, Ian Murray*, Mr David Ward, Nadhim Zahawi* DEFENCE: Rt Hon James Arbuthnot*§, Mr Julian Brazier, Thomas Docherty*, Rt Hon Jeffrey M. Donaldson*, John Glen*, Mr Mike Hancock, Mr Dai Harvard*, Mrs Madeleine Moon*, Penny Mordaunt,* Sandra Osborne*, Bob Stewart*, Ms Gisela Stuart* FOREIGN AFFAIRS: , Rt Hon Sir John Stanley* (Chair of the Committees’ concurrent meetings), Richard Ottaway§, Rt Hon Bob Ainsworth, Mr John Baron, Rt Hon Sir Menzies Campbell, Rt Hon Ann Clwyd, Mike Gapes*, Andrew Rosindell, Mr Frank Roy, Rory Stewart, Dave Watts* INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Rt Hon Malcolm Bruce*§, Hugh Bayley, Richard Burden*, Sam Gyimah, Richard Harrington*, Pauline Latham, Jeremy Lefroy, Michael McCann*, Alison McGovern, Anas Sarwar, Chris White* * Member who participated in the inquiry leading to this Report § Chair of a participating Committee Powers The Committees are departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in Standing Order No 152. The powers of the Committees to work together and agree joint reports are set out in Standing Order No. 137A. These Standing Orders are available on the Internet via www.parliament.uk. Publication The Reports and evidence of the Committees are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. Individual and joint publications of the Committees are on the Internet at www.parliament.uk/business/committees.cfm. A list of Joint Reports of the Committees in the present Parliament is at the back of this volume. Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are Mick Hillyard (Clerk), Eliot Barrass (Second Clerk) and Vanessa Hallinan (Committee Assistant). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Committees on Arms Export Controls, House of Commons, 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 1223; the Committees’ email address is [email protected] Scrutiny of arms Export Controls 2011 1 Contents Report Page Summary 3 Conclusions and recommendations 5 1 Introduction 12 2 The Government’s Annual Report on Strategic Exports 13 3 Promoting arms exports 14 The Government’s policy 14 The Treaty on US/UK Defence Trade Cooperation 17 4 The Performance of the Export Control Organisation 19 5 Review of Arms Export Controls 22 Licensing Criteria 22 ‘Brass plate’ companies 24 Pre-licence registration of arms brokers 25 Extra-territorial arms export controls 27 Military end-use control 30 Torture end-use controls 31 Sodium thiopental – UK exports to the US for use in lethal injections 32 ‘No re-export’ clauses and undertakings 34 6 Enforcement 38 Civil penalty regime: compound penalties 38 7 The UK Government and the Arms Trade Treaty 40 The UK Government’s role in negotiations 40 A strong ATT or one based on consensus? 42 8 Sustainable development—Criterion 8 45 9 Combating bribery and corruption 47 A specific Criterion 47 10 Countries of Concern 50 China 50 Israel 50 Saudi Arabia and Yemen 52 Arms exports to authoritarian regimes in North Africa, Middle East and worldwide 54 Annex 1: The Consolidated Criteria 57 Annex 2: EU Council Common Position 63 2 Optional header Annex 3: Extra-territoriality (offences) 70 Annex 4: Selected arms export licence approvals to countries in North Africa and the Middle East of arms or components of arms that could be used for internal repression 73 Formal Minutes 77 Witnesses 77 List of printed written evidence 80 Scrutiny of arms Export Controls 2011 3 Summary This is our first report on arms export controls since the present Government took office in May 2010. As in previous years, we have reviewed the Government’s policy on arms exports, its administration and enforcement, and the adequacy or otherwise of current legislation. This year we have paid particular attention to the Government’s policy of intensifying the promotion of arms exports. The policy has come under scrutiny following the uprisings and demonstrations in recent weeks in North Africa and the wider Middle East and the armed response made to them. We set out in Annex 4 selected licence approvals to a number of countries in the region from January 2009 to September 2010 of arms that could be used for internal repression. Since January 2011 the Government has been vigorously backpedalling on a number of arms export licence approvals to authoritarian regimes across the region as detailed in our Report. We conclude that both the present Government and its predecessor misjudged the risk that arms approved for export to certain authoritarian countries in North Africa and the Middle East might be used for internal repression. We welcome the revocation of a number of arms export licences to Bahrain, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, and recommend that the Government extends immediately its review of UK arms export licences for countries in North Africa and the wider Middle East to authoritarian regimes worldwide. We also recommend that the Government sets out how it intends to reconcile the potential conflict of interest between increased emphasis on promoting arms exports with the staunch upholding of human rights. We recommend that the Government states what specific steps it is taking to ensure that UK exporters take full advantage of the potential benefits of the Treaty on US/UK Defence Trade Co-operation, and also reviews the performance of the Export Control Organisation (ECO). We recommend that the Government sets itself a much shorter timetable within which to make the UK’s Consolidated Criteria for arms exports wholly consistent with the EU’s Common Position. On enforcement, we recommend that the Government states what precise action it will take against ‘brass plate’ companies registered in the UK but trading in arms from overseas locations. We also recommend that the Government carries out a full review of the case for a pre-licence register of arms brokers. On extra-territoriality we conclude that there is no justification for allowing a UK person to conduct arms exports overseas that would be a criminal offence if carried out from the UK and we recommend that the Government extends extra-territoriality to all items on the Military List in Category C. 4 Optional header We recommend that the Government provides detailed information on the parameters of the torture end-use control it intends to propose to the EU. We found the revelation that sodium thiopental had been exported from the UK for use in executions in the United States deeply disturbing and we recommend that the Government states what monitoring and procedural changes it has made to prevent any similar avoidance of export controls occurring. On applying criterion 8 of the Consolidated Criteria namely “The compatability of the arms exports with the technical and economic capacity of the recipient country, taking into account the desirability that states should achieve their legitimate needs of security and defence with the least diversion for armaments of human and economic resources”, we recommend that the Government provides a full statement of the methodology it uses in relation to Criterion 8 in deciding whether or not a specific arms export licence should be approved. On the Arms Trade Treaty, we recommend that the Government continues to try to achieve the strongest possible Treaty, including exports of ammunition, with the maximum number of key countries including the United States, as signatories, but should not adopt a strict consensus or lowest common denominator approach which is likely to result in an Arms Trade Treaty being ineffectual. Scrutiny of arms Export Controls 2011 5 Conclusions and recommendations The Government’s Annual Report on Strategic Exports 1. Given the key importance of the arms export control policy as demonstrated once again by recent events in North Africa and the Middle East, we recommend that the Government ensures that in future the Annual Reports on Strategic Exports be formally presented to Parliament by the respective four Secretaries of State. (Paragraph 6) The Government’s policy 2. We conclude that the validity of the Ministerial evidence we took on 24 January and the wisdom of some of the export licences previously granted need to be assessed against the Government’s subsequent abrupt changes in export licensing policy following the recent uprisings against authoritarian regimes in North Africa and the wider Middle East. We look at these issues at more depth later in this Report [chapter 10]. We recommend that the Government in its response to this report sets out how it intends to reconcile the potential conflict of interest between increased emphasis on promoting arms exports with the staunch upholding of human rights.