HL Deb 13 December 1999 vol 608 cc19-20WA
Baroness Williams

of Crosby asked Her Majesty's Government:

What role the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development have in consultations with the Channel Islands arms exports licensing authorities over the issue of particular licences. [HL116]

Lord Sainsbury of Turville

Under arrangements between the DTI's Export Control Organisation (ECO) and Jersey and Guernsey Customs & Excise Departments, the latter send ECO all applications for a licence to export arms or other goods controlled for strategic reasons from the Channel Islands. These applications are then circulated by DTI to other government departments with an interest, as determined by them, and in due course appropriate advice is given to the relevant Channel Islands licensing authority. The departments to which DTI is required to circulate such applications include the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Ministry of Defence and the Department for International Development.

All such applications are assessed against the criteria announced by my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on 28 July 1997, House of Commons Official Report, cols. 26–29, and the EU Code of Conduct on Arms Exports.

Baroness Williams of Crosby

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What steps have been taken to ensure that machine guns and stun grenades licensed for export to the Channel Islands in 1997 and 1998 have not been licensed for re-export. [HL117]

Lord Sainsbury of Turville

Details of export licensing decisions between 2 May 1997 and 31 December 1998 were set out in the Government's 1997 and 1998 Annual Reports on Strategic Export Controls, published respectively on 25 March and 3 November 1999.

The relevant licences issued in 1997 covered the export of 10 stun grenades to the Guernsey Police for training purposes, and the export of a World War II machine gun tripod for display in a museum; there was a typographical error in the description of the latter in the 1997 Annual Report, which should have read "vintage machine gun part" rather than "vintage machine guns". The relevant licence issued in 1998 also covered the export of 10 stun grenades to the Guernsey Police for training purposes. I am disclosing this information in accordance with the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.

Under arrangements between the DTI's Export Control Organisation (ECO) and Jersey and Guernsey Customs & Excise Departments, the latter send ECO all applications for a licence to export arms or other goods controlled for strategic reasons for the Channel Islands. These applications are then circulated by DTI to other government departments with an interest as determined by them, and advice is given in due course to the relevant Channel Islands licensing authority. Such applications are considered against the criteria announced by my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonweatlh Affairs on 28 July 1997, House of Commons Official Report, cols. 26–29, and against the EU Code of Conduct on Arms Exports.