Export Controls

Exports of military equipment from the UK are governed by the 2002 Export Control Act, which was fully implemented in May 2004. This Act enables the Government to use secondary legislation, which can be amended without a parliamentary debate, to regulate exports and transactions. This is done through a licensing system which is administered by the Department of Trade and Industry's Export Control Organisation.

Export licence applications are circulated by the DTI to the Ministry of Defence, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development and judged against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria which were adopted in 2000. Depending on the nature of the application, decisions can be made at any level, from junior official in the case of the most routine to Cabinet, where it is controversial or where there is disagreement between departments.

Information about the number of licences granted to each country, though no detail on actual applications, is given in Quarterly and Annual Reports. These Reports are examined by the House of Commons' Quadripartite Committee (Committees on Strategic Export Controls) which is comprised of members of the four Select Committees monitoring the departments concerned with export licensing.

The problems

The legislation and the criteria themselves are not the problem, but the way they are interpreted. Although the latter include mention of human rights and conflict, this has not stopped sales to Saudi Arabia or Indonesia, to name but two. In 2002, the Government added "factors" to the criteria to allow other considerations, including the UK's military industrial base, to be taken into account. This was in response to BAE Systems desire to sell components destined to incorporation in US-made jets being supplied to Israel and used against Palestinian civilians.

Also, the Act allows for all brokering activities undertaken in the UK as well as by UK citizens anywhere in the world to be controlled. However, the detailed secondary legislation does not currently extend to UK citizens activities outside the UK except in a few specific cases.

Further Information