Committee calls for review of successive governments' dealings with authoritarian regimes worldwide
Successive governments have allowed British arms supplied to north Africa and the Middle East to be used for internal repression in apparent breach of official guidelines, a cross-party committee of senior backbench MPs says in a devastating criticism of the way weapons exports are approved in Whitehall.
In a stinging report on the approval of sales, including crowd control ammunition, guns and small-arms ammunition to Libya, Bahrain and Egypt, they say the government must immediately set up a review of exports which could be used for internal repression to "authoritarian regimes worldwide".
The report, by the Commons committees on arms export controls, makes it clear that the problem is compounded by the government's policy of trying to boost weapons sales, notably to countries in the Middle East. David Cameron was accompanied by representatives of leading British arms companies on his recent trip to the Middle East.
The government must set out "how it intends to reconcile the potential conflict of interest between increased emphasis on promoting arms exports with the staunch upholding of human rights", say the MPs.
"Both the present government and its predecessor misjudged the risk that arms approved for export to certain authoritarian countries in north Africa and the Middle East might be used for internal repression," they add.
Sir John Stanley, a former Conservative defence minister and chairman of the arms controls committees, describes the government as "vigorously backpedalling on arms exports that had previously been approved".
The MPs say they welcome the revocations of arms export licences to Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Bahrain but add that their number – as many as 156 – reflected the "degree of policy misjudgment" that had occurred.
The Labour government said it would not supply Israel with arms that might be used in the occupied Palestinian territories (OPTs). Tuesday's report refers to an Israeli assurance that no UK equipment will be used there. It also refers to a statement by the Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt that "the UK government does not have a policy that UK arms exports to Israel should not be used in the OPTs". Government policy "appears to be confused", say the MPs.
They demand detailed information on government plans to control future exports of equipment that could be used for torture.
And they describe last year's revelation that sodium thiopental, an anaesthetic drug produced by a UK company, Dream Pharma, had been exported from Britain for use in executions in the US as "deeply disturbing".
The MPs castigate the government for failing to demonstrate satisfactorily whether, and if so how, it assesses the risk that individual arms exports may be linked to bribery and corruption.
They also demand an explanation from the government of how it intends to act against "brass plate" companies registered in the UK but trading in arms from overseas locations. There is no justification, the report says, for allowing a British person to deal in arms exports overseas that would be a criminal offence if carried out from the UK.
Arms export guidelines introduced by Labour in 1997 say licences should not be approved if the equipment could be used for "internal repression" or "provoke or prolong armed conflicts or aggravate tensions in the destination country".
Ian Godden, chairman of A|D|S, which represents arms companies, said in response to the report: "The UK defence industry supports over 300,000 jobs across the whole country, and generates an estimated £35bn per year to the British economy."
He added: "Exports – amounting to £7.2bn in 2009 – underpin the service to our main customer, the UK MoD ... exports of UK defence equipment are stringently policed by some of the strictest export control rules in the world."