§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when she expects to extend the UK regulations on the licensing of exports of defence equipment to the UK dependent territories; and if she will estimate the yak e of those exports in the last year for which figures are available. [185172]
§ Mr. RammellI have been asked to reply.
The Government are working with the Overseas Territories to implement the Export Control Act by the end of the year. In the absence of centrally kept records, an estimate of the exports of defence equipment from the Overseas Territories would be meaningless, and liable to be misconstrued as an official figure. However, the Government believe the level of such exports to be very small, since the Overseas Territories neither manufacture defence equipment on a large scale, nor have large stocks of such equipment.