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Arms Trade: Saudi Arabia

Question for Department for International Trade

UIN 184868, tabled on 29 October 2018

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what the total value was of UK arms exports to Saudi Arabia in financial year 2017-2018.

Answered on

6 November 2018

The Government publishes Official Statistics (on a quarterly and annual basis) of licences granted and refused for military exports on GOV.UK, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data

The total value of military rated items, licensed between 1 April 2017 and 31st March 2018, was £894,505,658.

The value of exports licensed in a given period is not necessarily a measure of actual exports shipped in that period. This is because most licences are valid for multiple shipments over two years and export values are only available for a subsection of licences (Standard Individual Export Licences). Some licences expire before they are fully used and in these circumstances exporters must apply for a new (duplicate) licence, which can result in a significant element of double counting in some periods.