Defence Equipment: Exports

(asked on 14th November 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to monitor the re-export of defence equipment.


Answered by
Greg Hands Portrait
Greg Hands
Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
This question was answered on 22nd November 2023

The UK system is based on having a thorough risk-assessment process for the original export licence before the goods leave the UK. Export licence applicants are required to inform us of any intention to re-export the goods at the time of submitting their export licence application. It is an offence for an export licence applicant to knowingly make a statement which is false, and any licence granted on the basis of this would become void. This encourages exporters to be clear on their export licence applications about known re-exports to third countries.

We can and do refuse applications where there is a planned re-export that is inconsistent with the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria, or where we assess that the goods may be diverted to an undesirable destination.

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