§ Dr. TongeTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many arms export licence applications his Department has(a) examined and (b) advised against granting since September 1997. [83092]
§ Mr. Tony LloydFrom 1 October 1997 to 31 March 1999, 12,073 Standard Individual Export Licence applications, covering arms and other goods the export of which is controlled for strategic reasons, were circulated to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office by the Department for Trade and Industry for advice, in accordance with the FCO's requirements. In the same period, 924 Open Individual Export Licence applications were also circulated to the FCO, although this figure does not reflect subsequent requests for alterations to either the goods or the consignee schedules of these licences.
The Government's first Annual Report on Strategic Export Controls, which marks a new level of transparency in relation to the Government's export licensing policy, gives details of all licence applications refused in the period 2 May to 31 December 1997, broken down by country and equipment category. Details of licences refused in 1998 will be given in the next Annual Report.