HC Deb 30 July 1998 vol 317 cc523-4W
Mr. Pickthall

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the extent to which the end-use control, relating to goods which may be used in connection with the development of weapons of mass destruction, applies to the supply of goods to destinations subject to binding UN arms embargoes. [54871]

Mr. Tony Lloyd

Council Regulation (EC) No. 3381/94 and the Dual-Use and Related Goods (Export Control) Regulations 1996 prohibit the export from the UK to any destination of dual-use or other goods which the exporter has been informed by a competent authority are or may be intended, wholly or in part, or which the exporter knows are intended, wholly or in part, to be used in connection with the development, production, handling, operation, maintenance, storage, detection, identification or dissemination of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons or the development, production, maintenance or storage of missiles capable of delivering such weapons, and also where the exporter has grounds for suspecting that the goods might so be used. These provisions are known as the end-use control.

Under UK law, all binding UN embargoes are implemented by prohibiting the export of goods and technology on the Military List which forms part III of Schedule Ito the Export of Goods (Control) Order 1994, as amended.

In addition, the Orders in Council implementing in UK law the binding UN embargoes against Liberia, Somalia, Libya, Angola and Rwanda also prohibit the supply of persons in the UK or by UK nationals or companies overseas of goods which are or may be intended to be used in connection with the development, production, handling, operation, maintenance, storage, detection, identification or dissemination of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons or the development, production, maintenance or storage of missiles capable of delivering such weapons.

This statement supplements the information given in another place on the scope of arms embargoes observed by the UK by the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Baroness Chalker of Wallasey, on 20 March 1997, Official Report, House of Lords, columns 75–77; and by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Baroness Symons, on 28 January 1998, Official Report, House of Lords, columns 36–39. An updated version of the list of the Government's commitments regarding the application of strategic export controls, covering this point and other recent changes, has been laid in the Library.