Written questions, answers and statements

Arms Trade: Saudi Arabia

Show full question

Question for Department for International Trade

UIN 99645, tabled on 6 October 2020

Question

Chris Law
Scottish National Party
Dundee West
Commons

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what the total value of arms exports from the UK to Saudi Arabia was in the last ten years.

Answer

Mr Ranil Jayawardena
Conservative
North East Hampshire
Commons

Answered on

12 October 2020

Defence and security export statistics by region – rather than individual countries – are published on GOV.UK annually

However, HM Government publishes Official Statistics about export licences granted and refused each quarter. The publicly available data on GOV.UK currently includes details of licences up to 31st March 2020; data for the period 1st April 2020 to 30th June 2020 will be published on 13th October 2020.

Licensing data does not provide an accurate export value as value needs only to be declared for Standard Individual Export Licences (SIELs). Nonetheless, export values declared in SIELs for military exports granted to Saudi Arabia in 2019 were £638,236,675; and in the last 10 years were £9,262,769,732. Licences granted are not necessarily a measure of exports shipped in a given period though – as they are valid for between two and five years – and some such licences expire before they are used so, in these circumstances, exporters must submit a further application, which can result in double counting.

Answered by

Department for International Trade
Named day
Named day questions only occur in the House of Commons. The MP tabling the question specifies the date on which they should receive an answer. MPs may not table more than five named day questions on a single day.