§ Mrs. BrookeTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what criteria she uses to establish whether replacement component parts for nuclear power stations in India are capable of being diverted to military use; and whether these criteria changed between January 2001 and January 2003. [106183]
§ Nigel GriffithsAll export licence applications for India are rigorously assessed on a case-by-case basis against the consolidated EU and national arms export licensing criteria, and in the light of the statement made by my hon. Friend, the Member for Exeter (Mr. Bradshaw) the then Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, on 15 March 2002,Official Report, columns 1296–98W. The consolidated criteria include a specific reference to the existence of a risk that the equipment will be diverted within the buyer country or re-exported under undesirable conditions.
As part of the rigorous assessment process, specialist advisers in relevant advisory Departments consider all reliable information available at the time an application is submitted, to determine the risk of the items being used or diverted in contravention of the consolidated criteria.