§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many small-arms weapons declared surplus to requirements by each of the armed services have been sold on the open market; and if he will make a statement. [31428]
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§ Mr. ArbuthnotThis is a matter for the Disposal Sales Agency under its framework document. I have asked the chief executive to write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Keith Ellender, to Mr. Martin Redmond, dated 7 June 1996:
I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about the sale of surplus small-arms weapons on the open market, as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Disposal Sales Agency.
A total of 40,700 surplus small-arms weapons were sold in the 3 years since June 1992. 40,000 of these were to Section 5 Licenced firearms dealers for export, and 700 were directly to overseas governments. These figures were given to your parliamentary colleague Dr David Clark, MP by Mr Arbuthnot in a written answer on 10 July 1995, Official Report, column 468. There have been no further sales since then. We are unable to give a breakdown between armed services, because the weapons are declared by a single service source on behalf of the other services, but they would be predominantly of Army origin.
Great Care is exercised in the sales of surplus small arms to ensure that they do not fall into the wrong hands. To this end the long standing policy of the MOD is not to sell weapons to UK traders for stock. Mr Arbuthnot explained the full current policy in another written answer on 10 July 1995. This appeared in the same column as the answer referred to earlier.
§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list for each of the last four years, for each of the armed services, the number of small-arms weapons declared surplus to requirements that have been(a) destroyed and (b) sold; and if he will make a statement. [31427]
§ Mr. ArbuthnotOur records are not maintained in the format requested and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. However, in the last four years a total of 150,200 small arms have been destroyed and 40,700 sold.