Annex A - Official Documents

2005 Strategic Export Controls
6
1.2 The Legislation
The Primary legislation covering the export of
strategic goods from the UK is the Export Control
Act 2002. The Act is implemented by secondary
legislation (“Orders”) under the Act.
The Export of Goods, Transfer of Technology and
Provision of Technical Assistance (Control) Order
2003 reproduced the export controls on physical
exports that pre-dated the 2002 Act but introduced
new controls covering the electronic transfer
abroad of military technology. This brought
controls on military technology into line with similar
European Community (EC) controls on the
electronic transfer of dual-use technology.
The Trade in Goods (Control) Order 2003
introduced controls to cover trade (trafficking and
brokering) in military equipment between two
overseas countries where any part of the trading
activity takes place in the UK whether by a UK
person (individual or company) or a foreign visitor
or resident. This coverage is further extended to
include UK persons operating wholly overseas (i.e.
where no part of the deal actually takes place on
UK territory) who traffic or broker Restricted Goods
(i.e. Torture Equipment and certain long range
missiles and their components) to any destination,
or who traffic or broker controlled military goods to
embargoed destinations.
1.3 The Consolidated EU and National Export
Licensing Criteria
All applications for:
� the export of goods and technology on the UK
Military List (see annex A) from the UK;
� the advance approval for promotion prior to
formal application for an export licence;
� the export of dual-use goods as specified in
Annex 1 on Council Regulation (EC)
1334/2000 when there are grounds for
believing that the end-user of such goods will
be the armed forces or internal security forces
or similar entities in the recipient country, or
that goods will be used to produce arms or
other goods on the Military List for such endusers;
and
� proposals for gifting controlled goods from the
UK Government to overseas Governments or
end-users;
are considered on a case by case basis against
the Consolidated EU and National Export
Licensing Criteria (see Annex E) taking full account
of the prevailing circumstances at the time of the
application and any other relevant announced
Government policies.
The Consolidated Criteria (Annex E) were
introduced on 26 October 2000 and are based on
those in the EU Code of Conduct on Arms Exports,
and incorporating additional elements from the
UK’s own national criteria.
1.4 Transparency and Accountability
The period since the last Annual Report has seen
further refinements to the quarterly Reporting of
our Strategic Export Licensing decisions to
improve the layout and format of the information
provided. The House of Commons Select
Committee on Strategic Export Controls (the
Quadripartite Committee) has continued its
scrutiny of export licensing decisions. The
Government has continued its practice of making
more information available to the Committee in
response to its requests, which goes further than
our confidentiality obligations allow us to commit to
the public domain.
In addition, the Government has made itself ever
more available to give oral evidence to the
Committee.
The DTI Minister of State with responsibility for
Export Controls, Malcolm Wicks MP, appeared
before the Committee on 13 March 2006. FCO
Minister of State, Dr Kim Howells MP, gave
evidence on 25 April 2006, and officials from
HMRC and from the Revenue and Customs
Prosecution Office appeared on 25 May 2006.
Transcripts of each of these evidence sessions are
available on the Quadripartite Committee pages of
the Parliamentary website -
(www.Parliament.gov.uk).