Hilary Benn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2015-10-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent steps he has taken to ensure that arms exports to the parties to the conflict in Yemen are compliant with the Arms Trade Treaty and UK domestic law.

Mr Philip Hammond

The UK operates one of the most thorough and robust export control and licensing systems in the world. All applications for strategic export control licences for military and dual-use goods are assessed on a case-by-case basis against the Government’s Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria, in a manner consistent with the UK’s international obligations, including under the Arms Trade Treaty.

The Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria were updated in March 2014 before the UK’s ratification of the Arms Trade Treaty to ensure they were consistent with both the Treaty and the EU Common Position on Arms Exports. A licence will not be issued if doing so would breach the Criteria.