Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that British-made munitions which are exported are not used against civilians in any jurisdiction.

The Ministry of Defence is an advisory Department to the Department of Business and Trade who are the licensing authority for strategic export controls. Export licence applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis against the UK’s Strategic Export Licensing Criteria which provides a thorough risk assessment framework and require us to carefully consider the impact of the export of items and their capabilities.

In accordance with the Criteria, the Government will not grant a licence where it determines there is a clear risk that the items might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law or human rights. We also do not license items where we determine there is a clear risk that the items would, overall, undermine peace and security, including internal peace and security, or there is a risk of diversion to an undesirable end use.