This page looks at Parliamentary and Government developments relevant to the arms trade.
Government Ministers
Details of the Government Ministers with relevant responsibilities, as well as their Opposition counterparts, can be found here.
Select Committees
Each Government Department has a Select Committee monitoring its work. These multi-party committees of backbench MPs also hold inquiries into specific aspects of their Department's work. The Committees generally most relevant to the arms trade are the:
Business, Innovation & Skills Committee
Foreign Affairs Committee In July 2011 it published a report on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Human Rights Work in 2010-11 which included criticism of arms export policy in the light of the "Arab Spring".
International Development Committee In July 2011 the Committee grilled BAE Systems' representatives over the company's failure to make the £29.5million payment to the p eople of Tanzania, promised as part of its plea bargain.
The Committees on Arms Export Controls (CAEC), has representatives from the four committees above. In April 2011, it published a report highlighting flaws in the UK's export control policy.
The CAEC also led a parliamentary debate on the issue on 20 October 2011 and quizzed the Businss, Innovation and Skills Secretary, Vince Cable, and Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary, William Hague, on 7 February 2012.
Early Day Motions
These are a kind of parliamentary petition which show the strength of feeling on an issue, and whether or not there is cross-party support. They are usually only signed by backbenchers. MPs can add their names to an EDM any time Parliament is sitting and the EDMs remain open for signature until the end of the parliamentary session, at the moment until May 2012.
Current EDMs relevant to the arms trade are:
- especially, EDM 2166: Arms trade;
- also, EDM 2381: Cluster munitions
- EDM 1837: Human Rights in Bahrain
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