§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will list the contracts arising from the April 1989 international exhibition for military production in Baghdad.
§ Mr. RedwoodWe do not have this information, the publication of which would be a matter for the firms concerned.
§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether his Department has issued any export licences for vacuum pumps to Iraq.
§ Mr. RedwoodNo licences have been granted for the export of vacuum pumps to Iraq in the last year. Information on licences granted prior to this is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
§ Mr. CabornTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, pursuant to his answer of 15 May,Official Report, column 365, of the trade delegations that visited Iraq with Government support in 1989–90, 1988–89, 1987–88 and 1986–87, how many companies which made up the delegations have, or had, contracts with the Ministry of Defence.
§ Mr. Redwood[holding answer 21 May 1990]: One hundred and seventeen of the companies in question appear in the records the Ministry of Defence keeps of firms currently or formerly qualified to bid for defence contracts. It would involve disproportionate cost to identify the number of firms which were awarded contracts.
§ Mr. CabornTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, pursuant to his answer of 15 May,Official Report, column 365, of the trade delegations that visited Iraq with Government support in 1989–90, 1988–89, 1988–88 and 1986–87, how many companies and from which sectors of industry made up the delegations.
§ Mr. Redwood[holding answer 21 May 1990]: Two hundred and ninety-two companies participated in officially supported events in the years in question. They were drawn from a wide range of industries, which our records broadly classified as: healthcare, energy-oil field equipment, electrical-electronic engineering, water technology, automotive transport, domestic appliances-consumer goods, scientific-environmental equipment and mechanical engineering.
§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps his Department took to satisfy itself that the 10,000 protection kits exported to Iraq were to be used only for non-military purposes.
§ Mr. RedwoodIt is the practice to retain records of export licence applications for no longer than seven years. No information is therefore available on any exports to Iraq which may have taken place before 1983.