HC Deb 15 February 2000 vol 344 c490W
Mr. Chidgey

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will place in the Library the report from the US Customs and Excise Service on the availability for sale within the USA of(a) hand cuffs, (b) over-size hand cuffs and (c) leg irons, manufactured by Hiatts of Birmingham, UK. [109482]

Mr. Hain

[holding answer 11 February 2000]: During the course of our investigations into the allegations in The Independent newspaper on 16 November that UK-made leg-irons were on sale in the US, we received assistance from US authorities. They did not, however, provide us with any written report.

I stated in a letter to the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee on 2 February that we had completed thorough investigations into the allegations but had found no evidence that there had been a breach of the ban on the export of leg-irons. As far as we have been able to establish, it appears likely that the leg-irons in question were old stock dating back to the early 1980s prior to the statement made on 28 March 1984 by the then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Official Report, columns 175–76.

We are also satisfied that the leg-irons mentioned in The Independent articles were not manufactured using oversized individual cuffs exported without a licence from the UK. Although we have no evidence to suggest that such single cuffs have ever been exported, there is a hypothetical loophole and amending legislation to extend controls to cover large individual cuffs is in preparation.

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