PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
REGULATION OF ARMS BROKERS (14 December 1999)

That this House is gravely concerned by the disclosures featured in the Channel Four programme Dispatches, broadcast on 9th December, which demonstrated that arms brokers operating in London can arrange the transfer of light arms, and banned goods such as land-mines from a third country, even to embargoed conflict zones such as the Sudan; welcomes the initiative of Her Majesty's Government in referring the behaviour of the Pakistani diplomat concerned to Customs and Excise for investigation, but considers that the practices documented in the programme demonstrate the urgent need for United Kingdom legislation in the next parliamentary session; calls on Her Majesty's Government to lay down a legal requirement for each transaction involving the shipping or brokering of military, security and police goods or services by persons who are resident in the United Kingdom or are United Kingdom nationals abroad to be licensed in advance and for the establishment of an obligatory register of all companies engaged in such transactions; and further calls upon Her Majesty's Government to give its full support to the extention of similar measures at EU-wide level and at a wider international level.

Sponsored by:
Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated)