Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, if he will respond to the letter from the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians of 8 December 2023.

We will be responding shortly to the correspondence in question, regarding the provision of military goods to Israel. The Government takes its defence export responsibilities extremely seriously and operates some of the most robust export controls in the world. All applications for export licences are assessed on a case-by-case basis against the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria and taking into account our international commitments and obligations, including the International Arms Trade Treaty. All licences are kept under careful and continual review and we can suspend, refuse or revoke licences as circumstances require. As the Foreign Secretary has said, we are gravely concerned about the desperate humanitarian situation in Gaza. We are focused on significantly increasing the amount of aid into Gaza and the Foreign Secretary has appointed a UK humanitarian coordinator to drive this work.