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Arms Export Controls

I was not going to, but, to make the point completely clear, I shall quote from the report that the hon. Member for Kingswood produced and in which my right hon. Friend the Member for Tonbridge and Malling (Sir John Stanley) participated. It says:""In the past the Government produced the annual report about seven months after the end of the calendar year around the time (in July) that we are usually finalising our Report. This has meant that we have not been able to carry out any detailed scrutiny of the annual report until the following year. This year the Government indicated that it would produce the 2007 Annual Report on Strategic Export Controls in May 2008. In the event it was not able to produce the 2007 report by the time that we concluded our deliberations. The latest indication we have is that the 2007 Annual Report will be produced in July. This is no improvement on previous years."" I hope that that clarifies the report for my right hon. Friend. The Defence Export Services Organisation has been moved from the Ministry of Defence to UK Trade & Investment within the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, but today's debate has not mentioned how the licensing regime affects DESO, whether DESO is happy with the regime and what criticisms DESO has of it. In considering these regulatory matters, one needs to take particular account of the Government organisation that is responsible for our defence exports. Two points that were raised in last year's debate still feature in this report, and the Minister of State, Department for International Development, did not comment on them when he responded last year. I have already commented on the timings of the Select Committee's reports and, on intervention, about the issue of defence attachés, but the report says that""all of the departments concerned with the scrutiny of export licences need to keep under review whether the cutbacks in defence attaché posts is having a detrimental effect on the UK's export controls."" Indeed, the then Secretary of State for Defence, the right hon. Member for Kilmarnock and Loudoun, said in evidence on 17 January 2008 that only about 5 per cent. of a defence attaché's role was associated with any aspect of that work. But, as I stated last year, no one knows when that 5 per cent. of time occurs, given that 100 per cent. of a defence attaché's time is spent dealing with defence matters.