Arms Trade: Exports

(asked on 10th March 2020) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what his policy is on the export of (a) arms and (b) crowd control devices to overseas governments that his Department has classified as (i) non-democratic and (ii) oppressive.


Answered by
James Cleverly Portrait
James Cleverly
Home Secretary
This question was answered on 17th March 2020

Risks around human rights violations or abuses form a core part of the assessment of export licence applications, and are a key factor in the approval or denial of a licence. We do not export equipment where we assess there is a clear risk that it might be used for internal repression. A careful assessment of equipment, potential end use and end user is central to the assessment process. When making assessments, we draw on a range of sources including the media, international organisations, our diplomatic posts, from across Government and reports from our overseas networks.

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