§ Mr. David HeathTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what significant inaccuracies there have been in HM Customs and Excise data relating to the value of arms exports to individual countries; [71659]
(2) what factors underlie the significant inaccuracies found in HM Customs and Excise data relating to the value of arms exports to individual countries. [71660]
§ Dawn Primarolo[holding answers 16 February 1999]: HM Customs and Excise collect data on exports from the UK as an input to the Balance Of Payments estimation, and to meet the needs of the UK government and business users for trade information. An extensive validation programme is undertaken on the information received by Customs to ensure suitability of the data for those purposes, but it would not be feasible thoroughly to check all export declarations under £3 million. Information specifically relating to arms exports has never had its accuracies questioned in the past.
But when the detailed arms exports data were examined, errors of country or commodity code were found which would have made the information unreliable. This information therefore had to be re-checked.