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Arms Trade: Saudi Arabia

Question for Department for International Trade

UIN HL16577, tabled on 20 June 2019

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the value of UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia over the last 12 months.

Answered on

2 July 2019

The Government disagrees with the Court of Appeal judgment and will be seeking permission to appeal. We are carefully considering the implications of the judgment for decision-making. While we do this, we will not grant any new licences for exports to Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners, which might be used in the conflict in Yemen.

Arms sales data by region are published annually on GOV.UK.

Additionally, information on export licences issued, refused and revoked, up to 31 December 2018, which includes values declared for Standard Individual Export Licences, is published on GOV.UK.

It should be noted, that licences granted are not necessarily a measure of sales or exports shipped in a given period as they are valid for between two and five years. Licensing data only provides a partial indication of sales as exporters only declare export values for a subsection of licences (Standard Individual Export Licences). Some licences expire before they are used and, in these circumstances, exporters must submit a further application, which can result in an element of double counting.