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Arms Exports

I start in the traditional way by congratulating the hon. Member for St. Ives (Andrew George) on securing this important debate. I will widen the discussion and talk about our whole approach to export control in this area. As the hon. Gentleman said, he has asked my office a number of written questions in advance. As he has not had time to ask all of those questions, he will appreciate that I do not have time to answer them all in this brief debate. Understandably we have talked about Saudi Arabia and Tanzania and, as hon. Members will understand, I cannot comment on either past or ongoing Serious Fraud Office investigations. The Government's decision to issue export licences for an air traffic control system for Tanzania was taken after very careful consideration of the application against the Government's consolidated EU and national arms export licensing criteria. The Government listened and responded at the time to concerns expressed in Parliament and elsewhere. I can assure the hon. Gentleman that any applications to export to Saudi Arabia are subject to the same degree of rigorous scrutiny. However, I am afraid that I shall disappoint him and other colleagues when I say that I cannot add to the statements that have already been made about the discontinuance of the SFO inquiry. That is partly because my Department does not lead on this issue, but mainly because the Attorney-General and others have already made statements about it. It would not be appropriate for me to say any more than the Government have already said in making their position clear. It is entirely understandable for hon. Members to be concerned about bribery and corruption. The Government share that concern and are committed to working with our international partners and the business community to ensure that there is effective action here and abroad to tackle the problem of corruption. That is demonstrated by our ratification of the OECD convention on combating bribery of foreign public officials and by the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001. However, there were particular issues in this case, which the Attorney-General articulated.