To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how the Government will extend export laws to control extra-territorial brokering and trafficking of small arms by United Kingdom citizens operating outside the United Kingdom, as announced by his Department on 6 February. (186818)

On 6 February 2008 the Government published their initial response to a public consultation carried out as part of the 2007 review of export control legislation. The Government’s commitment to extend the extra-territorial trade controls to cover the activities of UK persons anywhere in the world in relation to small arms forms part of that response, which can be viewed in full on BERR’s website at:

http://www.berr.gov.uk/europeandtrade/strategic-export-control/legislation/export-control-act-2002/review/index.html

The Government have prioritised the implementation of this commitment and intend to act speedily. During the coming weeks, the Government will work closely with stakeholder groups on the detail of how these new controls will operate in practice and will produce guidance to assist industry to operate them, prior to the introduction of secondary legislation.