Speeches by Doughty.

“Maybe Lord Coaker wants to say something about the RAF flights.”

“We consider a wide range of information. Lord Coaker has already answered on the specific point about the purpose of the RAF flights. We consider all information from the United Nations, NGOs, media reporting, open-source information—all these factors are considered.”

“We consider the important role of the ICC and the ICJ as we would any other evidence. The ICJ has not come to a definitive judgment on this. Obviously, it would inform any future processes. We weigh that in the same way that we do all the other evidence that is there, and we take their roles very, very seriously.”

“On 2 September, the Foreign Secretary informed the House very clearly that the Government have rigorously followed every stage of the process that the previous Conservative Government established. On 2 September, we also published a summary of the IHL assessment process to allow for greater transparency on our decision…”

“Yes. The approach to applying criterion 2c draws on the framework upheld in previous litigation, and that gathers information from a wide range of sources. That includes information reporting from NGOs on the ground, reports from other FCDO desks, reports from the media, statements from the UN, NGOs and so on, and repo…”

“I obviously cannot comment on the process and ways that the previous Government conducted it, and I am not privy to the document.”

“No.”

“And we followed the criteria exactly as set out in the SELC criteria.”

“All that is balanced.”

“The Export Control Act 2002, which you will be familiar with, requires Ministers to give guidance about the general principles to be followed when exercising licensing powers. The current guidance, of course, is the SEL criteria, which were announced in 2001. Obviously, criterion 2c, which we have spoken about already,…”

“Well, we consider a whole series of issues, as I set out earlier. As I said, particularly the review highlighted concerns and breaches in the areas of humanitarian access and the treatment of detainees—these were the two specific areas. That obviously led to a question about wider commitment to acting in line with inte…”

“It was the information that we had available, Chair. Obviously, I do not have access to information that previous Governments had. We took into account events that took place since we came into office.”

“Well, we get access to a lot of information, but I do not have the exact details of all the decisions they made. Maybe Stephen could speak on the previous information.”

“I should point out, Chair, that this was a process the Foreign Secretary announced as soon as we came into office. He wanted to consider all that evidence, including any new information that had come into place, and make sure that was considered properly in line with our export licensing criteria. He then provided the …”

“It is all the information together. Obviously, new events had occurred, and there was also an assessment of what had gone before. The Foreign Secretary then reviewed that very carefully, taking that process incredibly seriously, and then gave the advice to the Secretary of State for Business and Trade.”

“Well, we have suspended licences to Israel for items that we believe might be used in carrying out or facilitating IDF military operations in the Gaza conflict. There are a number of export licences we have assessed that are not for military use in the current conflict and therefore do not require suspension. This is a…”

“Yes, absolutely. For example, there are some export licences relating to civilian use that cover a range of products: food testing, chemicals, telecoms and data equipment. There are a number of licences that would not fall within the kind of items that drew us to concern about how they might be used in violation of IHL…”

“Yes, this was a consideration of those specifically, but obviously we consider all export licences in the round in relation to the criteria. We consider all the criteria against them all. Obviously, there are some things that naturally do not fit within grounds for either a refusal in the first place, or a suspension a…”

“There are currently no extant licences that we assess might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”

“That is subject to the specific measures set out in Parliament excluding exports to the global F-35 programme from the scope of the suspension.”