Hansard

Arms Trade

Volume 696: debated on Tuesday 20 November 2007

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Lord Judd

asked Her Majesty’s Government:

What measures they are taking to ensure full extraterritorial control on arms brokering and trafficking, including monitoring of end use and the activities of subsidiary companies. [HL88]

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office & Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
(Lord Jones of Birmingham)

My right honourable friend the Prime Minister announced in his Lord Mayor’s banquet speech on 12 November 2007 the Government’s willingness to extend export laws to control brokering and trafficking of small arms and potentially other weapons.

This announcement follows a review of the current export control legislation launched on 18 June 2007. The review included a public consultation that specifically sought the views of respondents on a range of change options, including in relation to the trade (trafficking and brokering) controls. The public consultation closed on 30 September. The Government are currently considering the detailed comments received and will issue their initial response to the review by 31 December.