19 Mar 15. This week there are around 40 reports going out from Select Committees. That includes three Defence and One Foreign Affairs report. This is a quick note to warn you off. The main one is the first report from Defence on Re-thinking Defence to Meet new Threats.
Tuesday: Report 00.01 hrs. The Defence Committee have their main final report on Re-thinking Defence to Meet new Threats. This is the Committee’s substantial overview of the shortfalls in what the Armed Services are going to look like by 2020. Embargoes from Monday from
Report 00.01 hrs. Foreign Affairs will publish a letter to the FCO on policy in Middle East and N Africa. It’s partly a summary of what the Committee found during its visit to Cairo and Tunis in February, and partly reaction to evidence from minister Tobias Ellwood MP, in March. Embargoes from Monday from
Wednesday: Report 00.01 hrs. The Defence Committee publish their report which looks towards the next Strategic Defence and Security Review. It is Part 3 of a number of reports that have looked to advise the Government on what to take into consideration when planning our Defence. Embargoes from Tuesday from
Thursday: Report 00.01 hrs. Defence’s third report of the week is Decision Making in Defence Policy. The Inquiry tried to examine just how Strategic decisions are made between government and the Armed Forces and what lessons have been learned in the last ten years. Embargoes from Wednesday from
20 Mar 15. The Committees on Arms Export Controls (CAEC). Extant arms exports to the Government’s top Countries of Human Rights Concern are in excess of £5bn say MPs. The Committees on Arms Export Controls comprises 4 House of Commons Select Committees — the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee, the Defence Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee and the International Development Committee — meeting together.
The 2015 Report of the Committees on Arms Export Controls (CAEC) once again scrutinizes the Government’s arms exports and arms control policies and practices in unprecedented depth and detail.
The Committees’ scrutiny encompasses the Government’s quarterly information on arms export licences, arms export control legislation and procedures, organisational and operational issues, Arms Export Agreements, Arms Control Agreements, arms export control policies, and arms exports to Countries of concern.
In this Report the Committees have continued their scrutiny of all the policy areas covered in their 2014 Report, but in addition have extended their scrutiny for the first time to the Export Control Organisation’s computer system (SPIRE) and its website, to Russia and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, to the consequences of the Government’s policy of encouraging arms exporters to transfer from Standard Individual Export Licences to Open Individual Export Licences, and to the use of chlorine chemical weapons in Syria. In addition the Committees have added Hong Kong and Qatar to their own list of Countries and Territories of arms export concern over and above the Countries of Human Rights concern listed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Once again the Committees’ Report details for each of the FCO’s 28 named Countries of Human Rights concern the number of extant strategic export licences for each country, their value (where provided by the Government) and the nature of the strategic exports that have been approved.
House of Commons and House of Lords Hansard Written Answers
Asked by Mr Mike Hancock (Portsmouth South)
Asked on: 11 March 2015
Ministry of Defence
Military Aircraft
227185
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he plans for UK-crewed fighter jets to be stationed on the deck of a Queen-Elizabeth class aircraft carrier.
Answered by: Mr Philip Dunne
Answered on: 18 March 2015