Lord Lester of Herne Hill – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lester of Herne Hill on 2016-02-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to respond to the European Parliament’s call for an arms embargo on Saudi Arabia, and if so, how.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

It is up to individual member states, not the European Parliament, to make national arms export licensing decisions.

The 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.

We are able to review licences and suspend or revoke as necessary when circumstances require.

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