New Clause 2 - Licensed production overseas
Export Control Bill
11:00 am
Mr Robert Key (Salisbury, Conservative)
The Quadripartite report to which the hon. Member for Twickenham referred was not quite as decisive as he suggests. In its recommendation at paragraph 106, after the comma at which he stopped, it said:
``to be used only if a non-statutory regime is shown to have failed.''
It also quoted Lord Scott, who observed:
``I do not believe we will be seeing in this country any claims for damages for breach of undertaking in this sort of area.''
That referred to contractual terms to control re-export that would be readily capable of enforcement. However, the Quadripartite Committee suggested that we need a system in which
``the Government knows when a licensed production facility is being set up, and which ensures that the goods produced are not exported to countries or end-users where the UK would not licence them.''
The Committee acknowledged that it was a difficult area, not only in knowing what was going on and whether anything could be done, but in knowing whether a non-statutory regime was working. Given that the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry can revoke licences if the end user is not as specified, or if new evidence comes to light that the Government has been misled in some way, it would be a foolish company that established production facilities in another country knowing that that might cost it its home base--that possibility would always hang over it. The practicality is important—I am not sure how the Government could possibly enforce that overseas.
I take on board what the hon. Member for Twickenham said and, having read the Quadripartite report, I am sympathetic. I understand why the Committee could not be conclusive. I am inclined to support the Government, because we have not had many cases where the system has broken down, but I shall be interested to hear what the Minister says.