UK Parliament Members Pushing for Dedicated Arms Export Control Committee

Members of the U.K. Parliament are lobbying for the creation of a “dedicated select committee” on arms export controls. The current committee structure doesn’t allow lawmakers to devote enough time and resources to export control issues, they said, and limits their ability to scrutinize government export regulations, including licensing and control decisions.

Currently, the U.K. Parliament performs oversight of arms export control issues through the Committees on Arms Export Controls (CAEC), which consists of four House of Commons select committees meeting concurrently: the Defense, Foreign Affairs, International Development and International Trade committees. This system is inefficient and outdated, the committee chairs said in a Jan. 11 letter to Penny Mordaunt, House of Commons leader.

“The current rules governing the structure of how CAEC operates, in particular the quorum requirements, are not conducive to effective scrutiny when four extremely busy committees are involved,” the letter said. “As such, in recent years it has proved increasingly difficult for CAEC to function effectively, reducing the level of parliamentary scrutiny over the important Government activity of the licencing and control of arms exports. This is not in the interests of Parliament, the public, or Government.”

Instead, the U.K. should establish a dedicated committee with a “clearly defined remit and dedicated membership” to ensure “arms export policy and implementation receives the level of scrutiny it deserves,” they said. The lawmakers noted this would require the support of the U.K. government, other parties in the House and a “decision on the allocation of the Chairship to a particular party.”

The CAEC’s “unusually stringent rules and governance structures are often a hindrance” to export control oversight, said Mark Garnier, the committee chair. He pointed to the “rigid rules around quorum,” which “form a huge barrier” to the committee's work. “We suggest a new approach that would streamline processes and enable more effective scrutiny of Government licencing and control of arms exports.”