Extract from Business
and Trade Questions
Arms Export Licences: Israel
(Edinburgh South West)
(SNP)
13. Whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of
revoking arms export licences to Israel (900381)
(Coatbridge, Chryston and
Bellshill) (SNP)
15. Whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of
revoking arms export licenses to Israel (900383)
The Secretary of State for Business and Trade ()
Since the barbaric terrorist acts by Hamas against Israel on 7 October and
the subsequent conflict in the region, the Government have been
monitoring the situation very closely. The UK supports Israel’s
legitimate right to defend itself and take action against
terrorism, provided that that is within the bounds of
international humanitarian law. Export licences are kept under
careful and continual review as standard, and we are able to
amend licences or refuse new licence applications if they are
inconsistent with the strategic export licensing criteria.
No one is suggesting that Israel does not have
the right to defend itself—but, as the Secretary of State says
and we agree, within the bounds of international law. The mass
killing of civilians in Gaza should concern us all. Without
resorting to platitudes about the relative toughness of the UK’s
arms export controls, could she please identify which arms export
licences are currently in force, including open licences for end
use by the Israeli defence and security forces, and provide
details of them to the House?
I do not believe that is something that I am able to do or should
do. I can tell the hon. and learned Lady that last year we
granted 114 standard individual export licences for military
goods valued at £42 million to Israel If there
is a specific issue that she would like to highlight, we are
prepared to look at it, but she will know that security and
defence exports are not necessarily best discussed on the Floor
of the House or in public, for obvious reasons.
A state that supplies military equipment that is used in the
commission of violations of international humanitarian law is at
risk of complicity in a humanitarian catastrophe. In continuing
with those licences and supplying UK arms to Israel what assessment
does the Secretary of State make of the potential for UK
Government complicity, if Israel is found to have
committed war crimes in Gaza by the ongoing International
Criminal Court investigation?
I am quite surprised that there is not a word of condemnation,
and the implication that the UK is complicit is really not the
sort of thing we would expect from a British Member of Parliament
in this House. I completely disagree with the premise of the hon.
Gentleman’s question. The Government take our defence export
responsibilities extremely seriously and operate some of the most
robust and transparent export controls in the world.
Topical
Questions
(Edinburgh South West)
(SNP)
T6. Could I revisit my earlier question to the Secretary of
State about arms export licences to Israel I
and many others do not agree with her secrecy approach, and I and
many others believe that Members of Parliament are entitled to
this information, so I will try another approach. Could she
detail the classification and description of the goods, the
stated end use and the licence type, including direct transfers
and those via third countries, and could she place that
information in the Library for Members of Parliament?(900396)
I believe there is a quarterly register that may contain some of
the information the hon. and learned Member is asking for, but I
am not able or going to list every single export decision that
has been made by the export control joint unit. I will see what I
can do to get her a fuller answer, but she will know that this is
a very sensitive issue. I have a quasi-judicial role, and I must
be seen to be impartial at all times. I will do what I can to
provide the information she wants, but I do not have a list to
provide her with this morning, and certainly not on the Floor of
the House.
Extract from Business
Questions
Sir (Northampton North) (Con):
May we have a debate on BBC impartiality? Surely we cannot have
BBC presenters using their on-air status to espouse fake news
about Israel or to make
scurrilous suggestions about the Prime Minister’s motivations, as
has been described in The Daily Telegraph today. It published a
well researched piece of journalism on the subject, having
trawled through the social media of some BBC journalists and
personnel. Anti-Israel bile and bias is there for all to see.
What are we going to do about the BBC?
The Leader of the House of Commons (): I think we all want our
national broadcaster to be the best in the world, and we want its
editorial standards and policies, and those who work for it, to
be the best in the world. The BBC is operationally independent,
but I hope it will reflect on what has happened over the past few
weeks. I hope it will look at what it can do, perhaps through
training, and at what is happening with its editorial teams and
those who work for it in the field, so that the British public
can rely on getting impartial, good advice, produced to the
highest journalistic standards. The BBC is usually very good at
these sorts of things, but there are certainly questions that I,
as a licence fee payer, would want answered in this respect.
