Exports: Israel

Mr. Andrew Smith
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many end-user certificates for exports of arms to Israel have been issued in the last three years.

Ian Lucas
End-user certificates are submitted by the exporter as supporting documentation when applying for export licences, and are supplied by the end-user of the goods. The Government publish, in their Annual and Quarterly Reports on Strategic Export Controls, detailed information on export licences issued, refused and revoked, by destination, including a summary of the items covered by these licences.

The Government's Annual Reports, published since 1997, and Quarterly Reports, published since 2004, are available from the Libraries of the House and on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) website at:

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/about-the-fco/publications/publications/annual-reports/export-controls1

As part of the Government's commitment to transparency and accountability the Export Control Organisation has also recently launched an online searchable database of export control licensing statistics in order to improve the usability of the data published. The database can be accessed at:

https://www.exportcontroldb.berr.gov.uk/eng/fox/sdb/SDBHOME

The latest date for which information is available is 31 December 2008. The officials will shortly be publishing the data for the quarter ending 31 March 2009.