§ Lord Hyltonasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have any figures of (a) expenditure on promoting exports of small arms and light weapons from the United Kingdom; and (b) expenditure on controlling end uses and trafficking, 305WA together with the costs of collecting and destroying such weapons and ammunition, both in the United Kingdom and overseas.[HL5467]
§ Lord BachInformation on the costs the Government incur in supporting United Kingdom industry's efforts to legitimately export defence goods and services does not include details of expenditure on the promotion of particular categories of weapons.
The UK is one of the main donors to the work of the United Nations Development Progamme Small Arms and Demobilisation Unit with £7.5 million committed over the period 2001–04. This funding supports a global programme of weapons collection, stockpile management, capacity building and destruction within the context of disarmament, demobilisation, reintegration and community development. The UK's wider Global Conflict Prevention Pool Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) Strategy, with over £20 million funding over the same period, aims to combat and prevent the supply, demand and availability of SALW around the globe as a contribution to conflict prevention, and to achieve a reduction in the impact of violent conflict on lives and livelihoods.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has a fund (£100,000 to £200,000 per annum) specifically aimed at small arms destruction overseas. This has been used to supply gun-destruction equipment to several African countries and to provide significant funding to a development programme in Cambodia. Other projects are currently under consideration.
The cost of administering end-use monitoring is not separately recorded.
The collection of weapons in the UK and their destruction is the responsibility of the Home Office. Information on the national firearms amnesty was provided by my noble friend Lady Scotland of Asthal on 21 October 2003 (Official Report, col. 53). The cost of this work is not available. Information on surplus UK armed forces small arms destroyed by the Ministry of Defence in each year since 2000 is recorded in the Government's Annual Report for Strategic Export Controls.