HC Deb 19 September 2003 vol 410 cc1114-5W
Mr. Gardiner

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what powers the Government have to prevent UK citizens providing(a) military and (b) police training to embargoed countries and forces. [131130]

Mr. Rammell

Where the United Nations Security Council has adopted a resolution deciding that states shall prohibit the supply of military and police training to specified countries or forces, the UK will generally implement this by making statutory instruments under the United Nations Act 1946 applicable to the UK, Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. Where the European Union has acted swiftly to implement a UN Security Council Resolution by an EC Regulation, the EC Regulation will be directly applicable in the UK and Gibraltar, and the UK and Gibraltar will legislate only to provide penalties for the breach of the Regulation in those territories.

Where the European Union has adopted measures prohibiting the supply of military and police training (for example, in the case of Zimbabwe), those measures will include an EC Regulation which is directly applicable in the UK and Gibraltar. The UK and Gibraltar will legislate only to provide penalties for the breach of the Regulation. Bermuda and the Crown Dependencies will adopt their own legislation to implement the EU measures. The UK will legislate in respect of the Overseas Territories other than Gibraltar arid Bermuda using powers in the Saint Helena Act 1833, the British Settlements Acts 1887 and 1947, and prerogative powers.

The precise powers taken in legislation will depend upon the scope of the sanctions regime against that particular state. However, legislation will generally create a criminal offence of providing assistance and training to prohibited territories or individuals without a licence from an appropriate authority, and this will apply to all individuals within the territory to which the legislation applies, and also to all categories of British citizen wherever they may be. Legislation will also generally provide ancillary powers to enforce the prohibition, for example, powers for the obtaining of evidence and information, and provisions for criminal proceedings and penalties. Penalties on summary conviction will generally be imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or a fine not exceeding £5,000 or both, and on conviction on indictment, imprisonment for a term not exceeding seven years or an unlimited fine or both.