Question / Taiwan: Arms Trade

Question for Department for Business and Trade
UIN 185369, tabled on 16 May 2023

Question
Catherine West
Labour

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many defence export licences have been issued for material for export to Taiwan in each of the last ten financial years.

Answer
Nigel Huddleston
Conservative

Answered on
22 May 2023

The Government publishes Official Statistics (on a quarterly and annual basis) on export licences granted, refused and revoked to all destinations: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data(opens in a new tab). These reports contain detailed information on export licences, including the destination, overall value, the type (e.g. Military, Other), and a summary of the items covered by these licences.

Currently this includes information up to 31 December 2022. Information covering 1 January 2023 to 31 March 2023 will be published in July 2023 and information covering 1 April to 30 June 2023 will be published in October 2023.

The Government assesses all export licence applications to all destinations against the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria(opens in a new tab). We will not license the export of equipment where to do so would be inconsistent with these Criteria.