Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many arms export licences have been granted by the Government for exports to Saudi Arabia in the last five years.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
HM Government publishes Official Statistics (on a quarterly and annual basis) on export licences granted, refused and revoked to all destinations on GOV.UK containing detailed information including the overall value, type (e.g. Military, Other) and a summary of the items covered by these licences. This information is available at: gov.uk/government/collections/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data and the most recent publication was on 12th October 2021, covering the period 1st April – 30th June 2021.
Information covering 1st July – 30th September 2021 will be published on 11th February 2022 and information covering 1st October 2020 – 31st December 2020 will be published in April 2022.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what recent assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria and its ability to protect countries from violence and human rights abuses.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
HM Government announced the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria in a Written Statement on 8th December 2021 (HCWS449) and is satisfied that they provide a thorough risk assessment framework for assessing all export licence applications.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps her Department has taken to help increase the number of businesses in (a) Northern Ireland and (b) the rest of the UK develop exports abroad.
Answered by Mike Freer
The refreshed Export Strategy launched last November focuses on the barriers faced by UK businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), by helping them at every stage of exporting, as part of our UK-wide Export Support Service (ESS).
We are establishing a trade and investment hub in Belfast this year to bring more investment, jobs and export opportunities into Northern Ireland. The team will be improving access to DIT services for Northern Ireland businesses.
In addition to negotiating free trade agreements with SME chapters, our work on market access includes removing non-tariff barriers – last year we resolved 200 of such barriers across 74 countries.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what discussions her Department has had with the Northern Ireland Executive and devolved regions on the implications of the proposed UK-Australian trade deal.
Answered by Greg Hands
Engagement on the UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement is taking place with all parts of the UK at all levels. Officials from the governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland receive regular updates from the negotiation team, on top of being involved in technical policy discussions.
The Department for International Trade has created engagement structures at all levels to ensure a constructive approach to working with the Devolved Administrations. These include the quarterly Ministerial Forum for Trade, regular bilateral Ministerial meetings, the six-weekly Senior Officials Group, Chief Negotiator calls running parallel to negotiation rounds, six-weekly chapter-specific policy roundtables, and regular working level engagement throughout the sprint. The programme of engagement totals hundreds of hours at official level and dozens at Ministerial level.
In the negotiations, the Government is acting on behalf of the whole UK family and the overall principle is to ensure all parts of the UK benefit from any deal - including Northern Ireland, which could benefit from tariff liberalisation on specialised machinery, for example. The Government has engaged extensively with the Devolved Administrations on all trade policy issues, including the formulation of trade negotiation positions.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what risk assessment measures are used in the Government's ongoing monitoring of arms exports to Israel.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
HM Government publishes Official Statistics (on a quarterly and annual basis) on export licences granted, refused and revoked to all destinations on GOV.UK containing detailed information including the overall value, type (e.g. Military, Other) and a summary of the items covered by these licences. This information is available at: GOV.UK and the most recent publication was on 13th April 2021, covering the period 1st October – 31st December 2020. Information covering 1st January – 31st March 2021 will be published on 13th July 2021.
HM Government continues to monitor closely the situation in Israel. We have procedures in place to review licences – and suspend or revoke as necessary – when circumstances require.
HM Government takes its export responsibilities seriously and will continue to assess all export licences in accordance with the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria (the ‘Consolidated Criteria’). HM Government will not grant an export licence if to do so would be inconsistent with the Consolidated Criteria.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what arms have been exported from the UK to Israel in (a) 2018, (b) 2019, (c) 2020 and (d) 2021 to date.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
HM Government publishes Official Statistics (on a quarterly and annual basis) on export licences granted, refused and revoked to all destinations on GOV.UK containing detailed information including the overall value, type (e.g. Military, Other) and a summary of the items covered by these licences. This information is available at: GOV.UK and the most recent publication was on 13th April 2021, covering the period 1st October – 31st December 2020. Information covering 1st January – 31st March 2021 will be published on 13th July 2021.
HM Government continues to monitor closely the situation in Israel. We have procedures in place to review licences – and suspend or revoke as necessary – when circumstances require.
HM Government takes its export responsibilities seriously and will continue to assess all export licences in accordance with the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria (the ‘Consolidated Criteria’). HM Government will not grant an export licence if to do so would be inconsistent with the Consolidated Criteria.