HL Deb 29 March 1999 vol 599 cc20-1WA
Lord Avebury

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will introduce legislation making it a criminal offence for any person within the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom or British dependencies to procure arms from another country other than in accordance with a licensing procedure, using the same criteria as if the arms were being exported from the United Kingdom, [HL1543]

Lord Simon of Highbury

The Government already impose controls on trafficking and brokering under the United Nations Act 1946 where this is necessary to implement a binding United Nations decision.

Section 3.3 of the White Paper on Strategic Export Controls, which was published on 1 July 1998, contains proposals to extend controls on trafficking and brokering to countries subject to other types of embargo, whether as a result of non-binding decisions of the UN or decisions of the EU, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe or the UK Government; certain types of equipment, the export from the UK of which has been banned because of evidence that goods of the same type have been used in torture; missiles capable of a range of at least 300 km.

The proposals in Section 3.1 of the White Paper to extend current controls on weapons of mass destruction also include trafficking and brokering activity.

The Government are currently reviewing the proposals contained in the White Paper in the light of responses received and are committed to introducing legislation as soon as time is available in the legislative programme.