House of Commons Report on UK Arms Exports Responds to Evidence Submitted by Professor Neil Cooper from Peace Studies
The latest report of the UK House of Commons Committees on Arms Export Controls has responded to evidence submitted by Professor Neil Cooper from Peace Studies and Dr Gerald Walther (Manchester University) on the decline in the number of inspection visits undertaken by HMRC to companies holding open defence export licences.
In their evidence and Dr Walther pointed out that a significant proportion of inspection visits to open licence holders still reveal examples of non-compliance yet the government has actually reduced the number of inspection visits.
They also noted that despite the government’s commitment to greater transparency with regards to arms exports, recent reports on the inspection visits had stopped distinguishing between different categories of licence misuse and that the government had ceased to provide data on the number of unlicensed shipments altogether. In response to the evidence from Prof Cooper and Dr Walther, the Committees has asked the government to explain why the number of inspection visits has declined from over 800 in 2009 and 2010 to just 300 in 2012. The Committee also recommended that the government should restore reporting on the different categories of misuse identified, including the number of unlicensed shipments discovered during compliance visits.