§ Mr. Menzies CampbellTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will publish the assessment made by his expert advisory group on whether an export licence should be granted to Matrix Churchill for equipment which is now the subject of a judicial inquiry.
§ Mr. AitkenNo. The assessments will, of course, be made available to Lord Justice Scott's inquiry if it wishes to see them.
§ Mr. Menzies CampbellTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how often the group of experts referred to in his Department's answer of 26 April 1990,Official Report, column 332, on military trade with Iraq met in the years 1987 to 1991 and on what dates; and what is the remit under which the group of experts operated.
§ Mr. AitkenNormally the working group met monthly. Its remit is to make a military assessment of applications for defence-related exports to Iran—and to Iraq until the UN embargo—within the guidelines which relate to the export of equipments to Iran-Iraq.
§ Mr. Menzies CampbellTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the definition of lethal used by his Department in assessing the nature of equipment supplied to Iraq since 1980.
§ Mr. AitkenMy Department defines lethal equipment as "military equipment designed to kill".
§ Mr. Menzies CampbellTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence on how many occasions the assessment of the 47W military significance of export licence applications made by his Department's group of experts was overruled by Ministers between 1987 and 1991.
§ Mr. AitkenIn some borderline cases Ministers sought further clarification and in the light of this did not, on some occasions, endorse the recommendation made to them. It has not been possible to determine the precise number of instances in which this occurred, but we believe that they were rare.