Arms controls ‘failing to stop internet sales’
The government is failing to stop the sale of weapons on the internet and must produce a clear strategy on how to prevent future abuse of the law, MPs have warned.
The quadripartite committee’s latest report into Britain’s arms trade controls notes that journalist Mark Thomas was able to find stun batons and stun guns for sale on two websites.
“We conclude that the government’s response to the challenge of the internet as an arms emporium is too passive and fails to take account of the role it now plays in promoting and facilitating commerce and exports across the world,” the report warns.
Then trade minister Malcolm Wicks admitted to the MPs in his evidence that no one agency had responsibility for policing the web, but they today warn this problem must be dealt with and a new strategy drawn up to tackle online arms sales.
The committee also warns that Mr Thomas found three firms, two based in South Africa and one from Israel, selling illegal weapons at a UK arms fair last September. These included electro shock weapons, stun weapons and leg irons.
Mr Wicks said this discovery was “distressing” and that officials had dealt with it immediately, but today’s report insists the government must be more active in seeking out breaches of its arms export controls.
Committee chairman Roger Berry noted: “This government has a good record – not only a well-deserved reputation for taking the lead in openness about licensing arms exports but also for promoting an international arms trade treaty which will help tackle irresponsible arms sales.
“There are, however, gaps in the system – for example arms advertised on the internet and the need for consistent extra-territorial controls – and the government needs to address these.”
Today’s report also expresses concern about the export of civilian items, such as trucks, which could be converted or used with other parts to create weapons. It calls for more research to establish the level of exports of such ‘dual-use’ goods.
Giving evidence to the committee, Mr Wicks accepted that “there must be a whole range of components that societies and economies like our own export that could in the wrong hands be quite important in developing weapons or whatever it might be”.
“I am genuinely interested in trying to get this one right without, on the other hand, over-reaching ourselves in terms of our jurisdiction,” he said.
The quadripartite committee also raises questions about the way the government decides which countries it will allow British firms to export weapons to.
It says the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia means all applications to supply that country with arms “should be considered more carefully”, and also recommends a clarification of the current embargo on sending weapons to China.
The MPs acknowledge the government’s interest in engaging China, but express “serious reservations” in lifting the ban on weapons to that country.
The committee also calls on the government to explain how it enforces its policy since 2002 that no weapons, equipment or component that could be “used aggressively” in the occupied Palestinian territories be licensed for export to Israel.
