Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-06-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the conclusions of the report The lawfulness of the authorisation by the United Kingdom of weapons and related items for export to Saudi Arabia in the context of Saudi Arabia’s military intervention in Yemen by Professor Philippe Sands QC and others, published on 11 December 2015.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
The UK Government takes its arms export responsibilities very seriously and operates one of the most robust arms export control regimes in the world. All export licence applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria, taking account of all relevant factors at the time of the application.
A licence will not be issued, for any country, if to do so would be inconsistent with any provision of the mandatory Criteria, including where we assess there is a clear risk that it might be used in the commission of a serious violation of International Humanitarian Law. The Government is satisfied that extant licences for Saudi Arabia are compliant with the UK’s export licensing criteria.
