Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the (a) legal and (b) regulatory framework for UK arms exports.

The UK’s regulatory framework for export controls is set out in the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria, which provide a thorough risk assessment process for reaching licensing decisions. The Court of Appeal judgment of 20 June does not undermine the UK’s overall framework for export controls as set out in the Consolidated Criteria. These Criteria have stood the test of time and are shared by EU Member States. The Court’s judgment is about how decisions were made in relation to one element of one of those Criteria in a specific context.