§ Dr. TongeTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many arms export licence applications her Department(a) has examined and (b) advised against granting since September 1997; and how many arms export licence applications have been granted by the Department for Trade and Industry since September 1997 against the advice of her Department. [71055]
18W
§ Clare Short[holding answer 16 February 1999]: Licences to export arms and other goods controlled for strategic reasons are issued by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. All relevant licence applications are circulated by DTI to other Departments with an interest. These include the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Ministry of Defence and, since August 1997, the Department for International Development. Since August 1997, DFID has been consulted on 2,609 individual licence applications circulated to DFID by DTI. I am advised that views expressed by my Department fall under the description of "internal discussion and advice", the disclosure of which would, in this case, harm the frankness and candour of internal discussion. The information is therefore being withheld on the basis of Exemption 2 of Part II of Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.