House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee

Committees on Arms Export Controls: unauthorised disclosures of draft Report on Use of UK- manufactured arms in Yemen

Seventh Special Report of Session 2016–17

Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 10 January 2017

HC 935 Published on 18 January 2017 by authority of the House of Commons The Foreign Affairs Committee The Foreign Affairs Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and its associated public bodies.

Current membership Crispin Blunt MP (Conservative, Reigate) (Chair) Mr John Baron MP (Conservative, and ) Ann Clwyd MP (Labour, Cynon Valley) Mike Gapes MP (Labour (Co-op), Ilford South) Stephen Gethins MP (Scottish National Party, North East Fife) Mr Mark Hendrick MP (Labour (Co-op), Preston) Adam Holloway MP (Conservative, Gravesham) Daniel Kawczynski MP (Conservative, and Atcham) Ian Murray MP (Labour, Edinburgh South) Andrew Rosindell MP (Conservative, ) MP (Conservative, Stratford-on-Avon)

Powers The Committee is one of the departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152. These are available on the internet via www.parliament.uk.

Publication Committee reports are published on the Committee’s website at www.parliament.uk/facom and in print by Order of the House.

Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are Chris Stanton (Clerk), Nick Beech (Second Clerk), Dr Ariella Huff (Senior Committee Specialist), Ashlee Godwin and Nicholas Wade (Committee Specialists), Clare Genis (Senior Committee Assistant), James Hockaday and Su Panchanathan (Committee Assistants), and Estelle Currie (Media Officer).

Contacts

All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Foreign Affairs Committee, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 6105; the Committee’s email address is [email protected]. CAEC: unauthorised disclosures of draft Report on Use of UK-manufactured arms in Yemen 1

Contents

Introduction: CAEC and its inquiry into the use of UK-manufactured arms in Yemen 3 Committees on Arms Export Controls 3 Inquiry into the use of UK-manufactured arms in Yemen 3

Unauthorised disclosures 4 Circumstances of the original unauthorised disclosure 4 Leak inquiry by Committees 4 Further leaks 5 Two separate Reports agreed 6 Liaison Committee consideration 6

Conclusion 7

Formal Minutes 8

CAEC: unauthorised disclosures of draft Report on Use of UK-manufactured arms in Yemen 3

Introduction: CAEC and its inquiry into the use of UK-manufactured arms in Yemen

Committees on Arms Export Controls

1. The Committees on Arms Export Controls (CAEC), rather than being a Committee of the House, has consisted of four Select Committees meeting and working together under the terms of Standing Order No. 137A:

• Business, Innovation and Skills Committee1

• Defence Committee

• Foreign Affairs Committee

• International Development Committee.

CAEC has been chaired in this Parliament by Chris White MP, a Member of the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee.

2. The Committees have worked together since 1999 to examine the Government’s expenditure, administration and policy on strategic exports, that is, the licensing of arms exports and other controlled goods. Any Member of the four Committees has been able to attend meetings of CAEC, though in practice a smaller group of Members of the Committees has been nominated to receive papers. Since its inception, CAEC has worked principally by undertaking a single inquiry each year which typically examined exports over the preceding year and developments in export policy.

Inquiry into the use of UK-manufactured arms in Yemen

3. On 10 March 2016 CAEC announced an inquiry into the use of UK-manufactured arms in the conflict in Yemen. The Committees said that they would look at the size of arms sales to the Gulf region and the role the trade played in advancing UK interests there. They also intended to examine whether weapons manufactured in the UK had been used by the Royal Saudi Armed Forces in Yemen, whether any arms export licence criteria had been infringed, and what action should be taken in any such cases. CAEC took both oral and written evidence during their inquiry.

1 On 17 October 2016 this was renamed the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee to reflect changes in the machinery of Government. The membership remained the same. 4 CAEC: unauthorised disclosures of draft Report on Use of UK-manufactured arms in Yemen

Unauthorised disclosures

Circumstances of the original unauthorised disclosure

4. An initial Chair’s draft Report on theUse of UK-manufactured arms in Yemen was circulated to the Members nominated to receive CAEC papers on Thursday 7 July. The draft Report was circulated electronically, with password protection, in line with usual practice. However CAEC was not able to meet in July with a quorum to consider this draft.

5. A revised draft Report, substantively the same as the one circulated in July, was circulated to CAEC Members on Thursday 1 September 2016, in advance of consideration of the Report at a private meeting on 7 September. Again, the draft Report was circulated electronically with password protection. The deadline for proposed amendments was 12 noon on Tuesday 6 September. An amendment paper was circulated electronically to CAEC members at 4.15pm that day.

6. On 5 September published a story about CAEC’s planned meeting on 7 September, saying that it would “see a cross-party push for the UK to suspend its multibillion-pound arms sales to Saudi Arabia”.2

7. On the evening of Tuesday 6 September, the BBC’s programme covered the Committees’ inquiry at some length. Substantial and accurate extracts from the draft Report were read out, and a journalist appeared to have a copy of the text of the Report.

Leak inquiry by Committees

8. On 7 September, in response to the Newsnight story, the Chair of CAEC instructed the Clerk to write to all Members who had received a copy of the draft Report, asking (a) whether they or any staff had spoken to any journalist about the content of the Report, and if so, who, and (b) whether Members of staff had provided a copy of the Report, or extracts from it, to any journalist or unauthorised party. The letter was sent by email at 12.40pm with a deadline for response of 6pm that day.

9. Responses were received from all Members by the deadline. All said that they were not the source of the leak.

10. Two Members volunteered information about contacts that they had had with the media:

• Douglas Chapman MP replied that nothing had been leaked from his office, adding that “I did a very guarded TV interview with RT but made it clear, while I had my own views, it was up to the Committee to reach its own conclusions with regard to the report. The interview is on my Facebook page.”

• Stephen Doughty MP responded as follows:

“I can confirm that the answers to your questions are a) no and b) no regarding my staff and myself.

2 See https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/05/mps-to-urge-ban-on-uk-arms-sales-to-saudi-arabia CAEC: unauthorised disclosures of draft Report on Use of UK-manufactured arms in Yemen 5

For absolute transparency, I have spoken to journalists from the Guardian, BBC World Service (and since the leak BBC Newsnight) about my views on the issues around Saudi Arabia and Yemen—primarily in relation to the UQ and other public stories this week/visit of the Saudi FM—and provided an *on the record* quote to the Guardian—related to the government response to the UQ on Monday—see https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/ sep/06/saudi-arabia-makes-plea-for-britain-not-to-ban-arms-sales.

However—I specifically refused to comment on the content of the draft report—and in fact emphasised the parliamentary rules—and certainly have not shared it with anyone.” [Emphasis in original text.]

11. The Clerk of CAEC also wrote on 7 September to the Clerks of relevant Committees to ask if they or their staff had spoken to a journalist about the report or had provided a copy to a journalist. All responses were in the negative.

Further leaks

12. The Committees met at 6pm on Wednesday 7 September to consider and agree the Report. The leak was also discussed, and the Committees agreed that the leak represented substantial interference with the inquiry. Consequently, the Committees agreed to refer the matter to the Liaison Committee for its view, in line with the procedure laid down by the House.

13. At this meeting, the four constituent Committees of CAEC did not agree the Chair’s draft Report. Instead, Members from the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee (as it was then) and the International Development Committee agreed a joint report on the Use of UK-manufactured arms in Yemen for subsequent consideration by those two Committees.

14. On 7 September BBC Newsnight again covered the inquiry and appeared to have a copy of the amendment list that had been circulated on 6 September. Again, substantial and accurate extracts from the amendment list were read out. On 8 September Newsnight covered the inquiry for a third time. The Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Crispin Blunt MP, was interviewed on this programme. The story was presented on Newsnight in a way that appeared to be designed to impugn the motives of certain Members.

15. On 8 September The Guardian published two stories covering the inquiry. These included references to the proceedings of the private meeting on 7 September, and reference to, and substantial quotations from, both the amendment paper and the original draft Report.3

16. The following day, 9 September, the Chair of CAEC wrote to the Chair of the Liaison Committee, in line with the decision of CAEC, setting out the circumstances of the leak and seeking a view on how the matter might be taken forward.

3 See https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/sep/07/mps-poised-to-call-for-suspension-of-uk-arms-sales-to- saudi-arabia; https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/sep/08/mps-accused-of-walkout-ploy-to-stop-vote-on- saudi-arms-sales 6 CAEC: unauthorised disclosures of draft Report on Use of UK-manufactured arms in Yemen

17. The Chair of CAEC also circulated on 9 September a draft text for consideration by the Committees constituting CAEC. This was the text agreed by Members of the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee and the International Development Committee on 7 September, with two suggested amendments to take account of new facts.

18. At 19.15 on 12 September the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee wrote to other Members of CAEC to say that the text agreed by Members of the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee and the International Development Committee and circulated by the Chair of CAEC on 9 September did not resolve the disagreements on some of the central issues. He told colleagues that he had prepared an alternative draft report for consideration by the Foreign Affairs Committee the following day. He planned to circulate it to Members of CAEC as an alternative to the text circulated on 9 September.

19. Two hours later, at 21.18, The Guardian published a story consisting partly of information contained in the 19.15 email from the Chair of the FAC.

Two separate Reports agreed

20. The Business, Innovation and Skills Committee (on 13 September) and the International Development Committee (on 14 September) agreed a Joint Report in line with the Chair of CAEC’s circulation and suggested amendments. The Joint Report was published on 15 September.4

21. The Foreign Affairs Committee agreed by a majority its own Report on the subject on 14 September and also published it on 15 September.5

Liaison Committee consideration

22. On 2 November, in response to the letter of 9 September from the Chair of CAEC, the Liaison Committee resolved that:

The matter of a prime facie leak of a draft report merited referral to the Privileges Committee under the House’s established procedures if a suitable special report on the matter was agreed by CAEC or one of its parent committees.

4 First Joint Report of the Business, Innovation and Skills and International Development Committees of Session 2016 –17, The use of UK-manufactured arms in Yemen, HC 679 5 Foreign Affairs Committee, Fourth Report of Session 2016–17, The use of UK-manufactured arms in Yemen, HC 688 CAEC: unauthorised disclosures of draft Report on Use of UK-manufactured arms in Yemen 7

Conclusion 23. The leaks during the CAEC consideration of its draft Report on Yemen constituted, as the Committees said to the Liaison Committee, a substantial interference with the inquiry. The leaking of documents during ongoing and private considerations of Reports also limits the ability of interested parties to account properly for their positions with reference to a full and publicly available document without further betraying the confidence of other Members. The breach of confidence involved in the disclosures could hardly have been more serious. They led to a breakdown of trust within CAEC, whose Committees were unable to agree upon a single Report to the House.

24. The capacity to share draft amendments ahead of meetings in confidence is of invaluable assistance to Members and to sensible consideration. Another failure to identify a source of improper briefing of private proceedings would materially undermine the proper functioning of all Select Committees of the House and limit the willingness of Members to give their colleagues advance sight of documents when no technical requirement for them to do so exists.

25. This Special Report will automatically stand referred to the Committee on Privileges. In the past, the Liaison Committee has recommended that Committees should, when deciding whether to make a Special Report on a leak, consider whether there was good reason to conclude that the power that the Committee on Privileges possesses of requiring Members to give evidence might lead to discovery of the source of the leak.6

26. In view of the extreme seriousness of these leaks, we urge the Committee of Privileges to conduct a full investigation. It should consider the case for commissioning external investigatory assistance.

6 Formal minutes of the Liaison Committee, Session 2008–09, 5 March 2009, item 2a 8 CAEC: unauthorised disclosures of draft Report on Use of UK-manufactured arms in Yemen

Formal Minutes

Tuesday 10 January 2017

Members present:

Crispin Blunt, in the Chair

Ann Clwyd Daniel Kawczynski Mike Gapes Ian Murray Stephen Gethins Andrew Rosindell Mr Mark Hendrick Nadhim Zahawi Adam Holloway

Draft Special Report Committees( on Arms Export Controls: unauthorised disclosures of draft Report on Use of UK-manufactured arms in Yemen), proposed by the Chair, brought up and read.

Ordered, That the draft Report be read a second time, paragraph by paragraph.

Paragraphs 1 to 26 read and agreed to.

Resolved, That the Report be the Seventh Special Report of the Committee to the House.

Ordered, That the Chair make the Report to the House.

[Adjourned till Tuesday 24 January at 2.15 pm