PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Arms Trade: Israel (12 September 2014)

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what export licences for defence and strategic equipment to Israel (a) were applied for, (b) were granted and (c) are still being considered for (i) 2011-12, (ii) 2012-13, (iii) 2013-14 and (iv) 2014-15 to date.

Asked by:
Jeremy Corbyn (Independent)

This department publishes export licensing statistics for each destination which includes a description and the value of the goods licensed for export. The information has been published since 1997 in the Government’s Annual Reports on Strategic Export Controls. Since 2004, this information has also been published in Quarterly Reports. All the available statistics are accessible via the Strategic Export Controls: Reports and Statistics website – https://www.exportcontroldb.bis.gov.uk/eng/fox/sdb/SDBHOME.

Details of export licences granted and refused for defence and strategic equipment to Israel is available in the published annual reports for the calendar years 2011, 2012 and 2013 respectively. For 2014, only Quarter 1 (January to March 2014) data has so far been published.

This department holds only limited information, for any given timeframe (annual or otherwise) relating to actual exports.

In terms of export licence applications still being considered, there are currently, as of 3 October, 61 ‘live’ cases of goods intended for export to Israel.

All export licence applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria in light of the prevailing circumstances at the time of the application.

Answered by:
Matt Hancock (Conservative)
15 October 2014