§ Mr. FlynnTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry for how many years his Department routinely stores copies of export licences(a) granted and (b) refused; what criteria has been adopted in deciding the appropriate time period for storage of such licence applications and export permissions; and if he will make a statement on any changes adopted in export licensing policy and the licensing process since 1 August.
§ Mr. Sainsbury[holding answer 29 November 1991]: The eighth Schedule on Public Records (22 June 1950) as required by the Public Record Office Acts of 1877 and 1898 laid down the period for which export licence applications should be kept as six years. The Public Record Office Act 1958 gave Departments the authority to determine their own destruction dates for their records. Until recently the Department has seen no reason to depart from the six years period approved by Parliament. However, because of the Trade and Industry Select Committee inquiry into export controls in relation to Iraq, destruction of export licence applications over six years old has been suspended for the time being.
The Government announced in October the adoption of a policy of full scope safeguards the effect of which is that significant nuclear exports will not be permitted to countries with nuclear facilities not subject to IAEA safeguards.