Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-05-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will suspend immediately UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

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, including Saudi Arabia, if to do so would be inconsistent with any provision of the mandatory Criteria. Our export licensing system allows us to respond quickly to changed circumstances, with the option to suspend or revoke any export licence, including those for Saudi Arabia, where we consider that this is a necessary step.

The Government is satisfied that extant licences for Saudi Arabia are compliant with the UK’s export licensing criteria.