§ Mr. LoveTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what was the value of armaments exports to(a) Greece, (b) Turkey and (c) Cyprus in each of 846W the last 10 years; on what occasions a licence for the export of arms to each country was refused during that time; and if he will make a statement. [98061]
§ Mr. VazHM Customs and Excise collect and compile information on the trading of goods between UK and other countries. However, extracting and quality assuring some of the information requested could be done only at disproportionate cost. This relates to exports before 1997.
Information on the value of military equipment exported during 1997 and 1998 and countries of destination can be found in the Government Annual Report on Strategic Export Controls for 1997 and 1998 respectively.
Export licence refusals for the last 10 years are recorded by the DTI. This information is not immediately available but the DTI have undertaken to write to me with full details as soon as possible.
All defence exports for all destinations are considered on a case by case basis against national criteria announced by the Secretary of State in July 1997 and, since June 1998, the EU Code of Conduct on Arms Exports. Exports to Cyprus are additionally assessed against guidelines announced by the previous administration on 14 February 1997, Official Report, column 282.