Virendra Sharma – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assurances the Government has sought from the government of the United Arab Emirates on the use of military equipment purchased from the UK for the repression of its citizens.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The UK operates one of the most rigorous and transparent export control regimes in the world. All export licence applications, including those for military listed or dual use goods destined for the United Arab Emirates, are 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 the application. We draw on all relevant information available to us, including reports from Non-Governmental Organisations and our overseas network. We will not issue an export licence if there is a clear risk that the proposed export might be used for internal repression and we take account of any risk that the goods might be diverted to undesirable end-users or end-use.