Exceptions and licences

Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill [Lords] – in a Public Bill Committee at 9:45 am on 27 February 2018.

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Photo of Helen Goodman Helen Goodman Shadow Minister (Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs) 9:45, 27 February 2018

I beg to move amendment 18, in clause 15, page 14, line 41, at end insert—

“(3A) Regulations must include provision for the establishment of a fast-track process for dealing with requests for exceptions and licences for humanitarian purposes.”

This amendment would mean that regulations have to provide a fast-track process for dealing with any requests for exceptions and licences for humanitarian purposes.

Photo of Steve McCabe Steve McCabe Labour, Birmingham, Selly Oak

With this it will be convenient to discuss the following:

Amendment 19, in clause 15, page 14, line 41, at end insert—

“(3A) The Secretary of State must, within six months of this Act coming into force, undertake a consultation on measures to establish an overarching framework for exceptions and licences to be granted for the purposes of subsections (2) and (3).”

This amendment would require the Government to consult on measures to establish a framework for exceptions and licences to disapply the effect of sanctions.

Amendment 20, in clause 15, page 15, line 12, at end insert—

“(c) humanitarian, development, reconstruction and peace-building agencies engaging with sanctioned individuals and entities in order to safely and effectively carry out their activities.”

This amendment would enable exceptions to any prohibition or requirement imposed by regulations for humanitarian, development, reconstruction or peace-building purposes.

New clause 5—Reports on the use of exemptions and licensing—

“(1) Where regulations are made under section 1, the appropriate Minister must—

(a) prepare a report on the matters mentioned in subsection (2) for—

(i) the period of twelve months beginning with the day on which the regulations made under section 1 come into force; and

(ii) every subsequent twelve month period; and

(b) lay a copy of each such report before Parliament.

(2) The matters are—

(a) the number of applications for humanitarian licences made during the reporting period including specific detail about whether licences were requested by EU Member States or the United States of America;

(b) the number of humanitarian licences granted, refused or withdrawn during the reporting period;

(c) the number of non-humanitarian exemptions and licences requested;

(d) the number of non-humanitarian exemptions and licences granted, refused or withdrawn; and

(e) the amount of time taken for each application to be processed during the reporting period.”

This new clause would require the Government to lay a report before Parliament every 12 months reporting on the use of both humanitarian and non-humanitarian exemptions and licensing.

Photo of Helen Goodman Helen Goodman Shadow Minister (Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs)

We have now jumped to the section on exceptions and licences, which relates directly to our previous discussion about refugees and the treatment of aircraft and ships. On Report in another place there were some amendments relating to the effects of sanctions on humanitarian work and to exceptions for humanitarian work, and an amendment that looked to get the Government to establish an overarching framework.

We are looking to amend three things in clause 15. First, with amendment 18, we would like to see the inclusion of provisions for the establishment of a fast-track process for dealing with requests for exceptions and licences for humanitarian purposes. I will go on to describe a situation where that was not working and had very bad consequences. We also want a consultation on measures to establish an overarching framework for all exceptions and licences within six months of the Bill coming into force. We have had representations on that from NGOs and the banking sector because they are all affected by it. Finally, we want to see exceptions to any prohibition or requirement imposed by sanctions for humanitarian, development, reconstruction and peace-building purposes.

I am pleased that new clause 5 has been put into this group, because it seeks a report on exemptions. I will come on to explain why that is for humanitarian exemptions and other exemptions.

The system of exemptions and licences is of long standing and well intentioned, but it does not always work as well as we would all like. Chatham House, which did a big piece of work on this last year, said:

“British NGOs undertaking humanitarian operations in or near areas where non-state armed groups…are active face increasing restrictions on their access to the financial system, including delayed transfers, the freezing of funds and in some cases the complete closure of bank accounts. These restrictions impede the UK government’s ability to meet its commitment under the 2015 National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review to refocus its aid budget to support fragile and broken states and regions.”

We are obviously in a situation where we have large populations moving around a great deal, sometimes under the control of ISIS or al-Qaeda. It is a very unpleasant and difficult situation.

Chatham House said:

“The perception of NGOs as ‘high risk’ can be traced in part to Recommendation 8…of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Drawn up after 9/11, this recommendation until recently described NGOs as being particularly vulnerable to misuse for terrorist financing, contributing to highly cautious behaviour by banks.”

While I mention the Financial Action Task Force, I would like to ask the Economic Secretary to the Treasury a question about it. It is included in the long title of the Bill, and I am a bit puzzled as to what its status is. Is it an offshoot of the OECD? Is it a treaty organisation? What exactly is it? What is its legal standing? What is its authority? Is it merely a coalition of the willing? Some of its work is good, but we need to understand a bit better what it is and why it is appropriate to mention it in the long title of a Bill. I can see that he knows the answer to these questions—good.

Since the global financial crisis, banks have been subject to far tougher regulatory and enforcement regimes for non-compliance, which has resulted in a diminishing appetite for risk, hitting humanitarian NGOs acutely as banks have shifted away from clients perceived to present the greatest risk of terrorism financing and money laundering. Banks are obviously crucial partners for the authorities in the implementation of international sanctions and counter-terrorism legislation. For UK-based humanitarian NGOs this presents the challenge of dealing with not only UN and EU sanctions, but the extraterritorial reach of the US, as banks seek to ensure that funds and aid are not diverted to designated individuals and non-state actors. While licensing programmes for such humanitarian activity do exist, they have little meaningful impact as yet on NGOs and their ability to navigate the financial system.

Humanitarian NGOs generally accept the need for regulation and due diligence, but the current weight of compliance demands by their banking partners is often seen as disproportionate—I have some quite interesting evidence of that, which I will come to in a minute—resulting in a need to spend donor money on additional staff and due diligence tools, as well as in increased administration costs, aid delivery and financial transfer delays, and, in some circumstances, even the closure of programmes to which funding cannot be delivered. Donors, and particularly Government agencies such as DFID, appear to have done little to alleviate this burden of compliance—I am not sure when the Minister for Europe left DFID.

Photo of Helen Goodman Helen Goodman Shadow Minister (Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs)

Right. The situation has left responsibility for the due diligence required for funds transfers with humanitarian NGOs operating in high-risk zones.

Banks and NGOs must cultivate relationships, with the support of the Charity Commission, that allow for reciprocal education with respect to compliance expectations, operating risks and mitigation steps. The Government therefore have a challenge in this situation. They need to provide guidance and clear messaging where there is ambiguity at the moment with respect to sanctions and counter-terrorism legislation.

I want to give the explanation for the fast-track process. We have a serious situation in Syria. Everyone knows that 400,000 people have died; 5 million have sought refuge overseas; 6 million have been displaced internally; and half a million people are in besieged areas. Yet this is what is going on. Saleh Saeed, the then chief executive of the Disasters Emergency Committee, said a couple of years ago about Syria:

“The DEC is concerned that the current regulatory regime is significantly slowing and seriously complicating legitimate transfers of much needed funds to pay for humanitarian aid operations inside Syria.”

The lengthy process for getting the money means that on one occasion a programme supporting 10,000 people simply had to close in 2013.

Emanuela Rizzo, who works for what I think is a French organisation, Terre des Hommes, is quoted as saying:

“Receiving money from Europe to Syria is a disaster,”.

The report states that the organisation made a request and waited:

“After 15 days of delay, it contacted the bank in Italy, which informed the NGO that the transfer had been rejected…The bank required a long list of documents, including the NGO’s agreement with the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, its memorandum of understanding with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, a letter vowing not to fund ‘terrorist’ groups, and a list of implementing partners.

After two months and a 200 euro…fee, TDH was able to get the money transferred through a different Italian bank with an affiliate in Syria. ‘But it’s becoming incredibly difficult’”.

The report states:

“Other aid agencies struggling to transfer money have resorted to wiring money to banks in Lebanon and physically driving across the border to pick it up. Aid coming in via social solidarity networks has had to do the same.

Since the beginning of the Syrian crisis in 2011, the USA, European Union, Turkey and the League of Arab States…have imposed a series of sanctions on Syria’s arms, banking, energy and oil sectors”— all for perfectly good reasons—

“as well as on specific individuals, with the stated aim of stopping state repression of protests, initially, and later, of weakening the government.”

However, the sanctions regime has had significant unintended repercussions and second-order effects.

About 15 months ago, when I was on the Treasury Committee, we took evidence from the Charities Aid Foundation and UK Finance. We had some interesting exchanges, so I asked the Charities Aid Foundation what representations it had made. The witness said:

“We worked, for example, in changing proposition 8 in the FATF arrangements, which has a presumption that charities are high risk. We have now had that changed to a risk-based approach”.

However, that

“has created terrible distortions in the assessment of charities.”

The witness added:

“The best example that I could give you is in Egypt, which is scored very highly by FATF because it follows explicit rules in the treatment of charities. Yet all we have seen is a closing of civil society space in Egypt, where charities are simply closed down. That produces the best result, as far as FATF is concerned, because there is then no risk, since they are inherently high risk. Many of these charities are the ones that criticise the Government, so there is a real adverse effect coming through from some of these actions.”

On the question of compliance costs, I asked about the Financial Conduct Authority’s report, which had said that one large, well-known

“charity required £40k of advice on sanctions regimes in order to maintain operations in a number of jurisdictions.”

The Charities Aid Foundation witness said:

“The large international NGOs are spending significant amounts of money on compliance...DFID’s own recommendations in terms of the funding that it provides is that 7% of the cost of any grant that it gives may be used on compliance costs.”

In practice, he said, it is often twice that: between 7% and 14%. It is underwhelming for people who write their cheque for £100 to the Red Cross to know that only £86 of it gets through because the other £14 is spent on lawyers in the UK.

The Charities Aid Foundation would also like more guidance about acceptable risk. Its witness said:

“You could have Treasury-approved guidance, developed along the lines of the guidance that is available from the Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce for other areas of activity.”

There is a question as to whether we want general exemptions for large, well-known organisations such as the Red Cross or UNICEF, or particular, small licences. Our view is that there is a lot of confusion, and that the individual licences system is not working that well. It is not only non-governmental organisations that agree with that, but the banks too.

UK Finance says it is

“imperative that the UK legislative architecture clearly defines how new legislation will be applied…Our members are clear that the UK’s departure from the EU offers a timely opportunity to create a domestic licensing regime”.

It is asking for a consultation, because that is a complex matter. It is not something that we can sort out in five minutes or in a Bill Committee of amateurs—albeit well-intentioned ones—such as ourselves. It needs expertise.

Alongside the legislation, UK Finance is asking for consideration through

“a wider dialogue on longer-term sanctions implementation.”

It says that

“the impending UK legal sanctions framework will…introduce a new and extremely important dynamic…This will result in an increased scrutiny among globally operating corporate and financial institutions on the approach that will be taken by the UK towards pursing unilateral sanctions and extra-territorial enforcement activity…we would not wish either EU or overseas business to withdraw from the UK due to legal uncertainty, or for it to impede business reacting to potential future relaxation of sanctions”.

The situation is complex. UK Finance does not want people to not use British banks because we have a different and unclear set of rules that might bang up against the risk rules run by the Europeans or the Americans.

To summarise, UK Finance says that banks and international NGOs,

“have increasingly articulated that the current framework permitting humanitarian transactions into sanctioned and conflict environments needs re-thinking and an update.”

It proposes that,

“a new equilibrium be found that recognises the strategic importance of facilitating both humanitarian aid and permissible civilian transactions to higher risk jurisdictions subject to economic sanctions, whilst balancing expectations of appropriate sanctions compliance and counter terrorist controls” that are required to make such movements of funds.

At the moment, banks and charities are,

“required to navigate a combination of complex multi-jurisdictional regulatory guidance and an inconsistent licensing regime which has led to a significant impact on the funding of humanitarian projects into certain conflict zones” and other high-risk countries. The banks would like

“mutual recognition for humanitarian licences issued by ‘like minded’ competent authorities” and

“general exemptions for certain mission critical activities”.

They, too, are interested in having a consultation.

New clause 5 is about reviewing the situation at the end of the process. The basic point, made strongly by Rights and Accountability in Development, is that the Bill does not provide sufficient transparency: we do not know why exemptions are granted to sanctioned individuals or how large they are. The new clause covers both the humanitarian exemptions and licences and the ones given to people who are themselves sanctioned. The reason is that we do not know how much money those people are allowed to have and what is considered reasonable for them. They are allowed to keep money unfrozen for their daily living expenses, but also for legal costs, in which we are particularly interested. We all know that there have been massive cuts to legal aid and we want to know whether people who are sanctioned, who often have extremely deep pockets, are being allowed to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on expensive barristers. That is the rationale for our new clause 5.

Photo of Alison Thewliss Alison Thewliss Shadow SNP Spokesperson (Cities), Shadow SNP Spokesperson (Treasury) 10:15, 27 February 2018

I agree very much with the amendments and support the hon. Lady in what she has said. I share the concerns that she has conveyed from both the NGO sector and the banking sector, where we seem to be caught between admirable public policy objectives—providing humanitarian aid—and the practicalities of sanctions compliance, which seems to be hindering the delivery of that aid in many different ways.

The amendments sensibly seek to expand a particularly narrow EU definition of humanitarian aid. That would give a wee bit more certainty and clarity to agencies working on the ground. It also gives us an opportunity to figure out how we ensure that money reaches those who need it and reaches them quickly. I understand that, at the moment, organisations can often wait up to six to nine months to get licences and agreements in place. Frankly, people on the ground in many of the countries involved do not have six to nine months to wait. They need money and aid almost immediately, so we need to find a way of fast-tracking the money in; we need to figure out what a viable financial route to get money from us here in the UK through to the frontlines in Yemen and Syria to ensure that people can survive looks like.

In Yemen particularly, there is a shortage of physical cash in the country. Hospitals in which people are working are often supported by the likes of Médecins Sans Frontières. MSF is paying those staff, but it needs to get the money into Yemen to pay them, so that they can turn up to work and feed their families, and provide vital assistance to people facing bombardment from the air. We need to find a way of getting the money in and doing that quickly.

There are practicalities involved in asking humanitarian agencies to go and carry out this work. Let us say that people are providing humanitarian aid on the ground; to move things around the country they need fuel. If they are in a country in which they have to choose between buying their fuel from Islamic State fighters or Assad, that is not actually a choice they can make, because both options would place them in breach of sanctions, so there needs to be a way of getting money to people and doing that quickly, so that organisations can do their work. If financial assistance has been granted to humanitarian organisations specifically for the purpose of buying fuel and then they cannot practically do that, that is a real problem and makes the delivery of much-needed aid extremely difficult.

There is an argument for granting up-front licences for infrastructure. If we know what is to be built—put in place—and it is a bridge that will allow people to cross it and move humanitarian aid around the country, or if it is a hospital or other facility that will provide aid, why cannot the licences be granted fast and up front, so that there is no delay in procuring the purchase of things to make that happen?

I agree very much with the points made by the hon. Member for Bishop Auckland about mutual recognition of licences. If we see fit to issue licences, that should be good enough for other countries as well. If we have gone through a due diligence regime, that should be good enough for other people to accept and would help speed up the process, and would prevent organisations from falling foul of someone else’s regulations. There should be agreement on that, whether in a treaty or some other form. It would be a hugely sensible way of speeding up the process.

I very much agree with the points that have been made on new clause 5. I understand that the United States has a huge amount of transparency around the exemptions and licensing regime. It is possible to see not only what has been licensed and how but the backlog to the licences, which is critically important because we can see delays in the process.

We need to understand why those delays are there and what we can do to overcome them. Frankly, people in different parts of the world cannot wait for us to go through a laborious process to issue licences. We cannot have those organisations spend huge amounts of money on lawyers. We just need to get the aid to where it needs to be with the best practicable due diligence.

Photo of John Glen John Glen Minister of State (Treasury) (City), The Economic Secretary to the Treasury

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr McCabe. I have listened carefully to the respective Front-Bench speakers and studied the three amendments and the new clause: amendment 18 on fast-track exceptions; amendment 19 on consulting on exceptions to disapply; amendment 20 on an exception for humanitarian or peace-building purposes; and new clause 5, which would require the preparation of an annual report on humanitarian and non-humanitarian exemptions.

I will speak to each in turn. Like my right hon. Friend the Minister for Europe and the Americas, I acknowledge the spirit in which they were tabled, but I will set out the Government’s position on why they are not necessary.

I will address the point about FATF immediately, because I have had some contact with it. FATF was set up by 16 countries after the 1989 G7 summit. It is not an incorporated or treaty body. It does not create binding obligations on the UK. The UK is a founder member and plays a leading role. I would reinforce that with this point. I recently received the Pakistani Home Secretary, who was seeking to persuade the Government to resist the greylisting of Pakistan for not making sufficient progress. That was clearly taken very seriously by the Pakistanis. I also acknowledge the work that is going on across Government in the UK to deal with the considerable challenge of the current evaluation of our own compliance with FATF standards. This is a robust, internationally recognised set of obligations that have real meaning and authority.

Many of the amendments have been debated in the other place and lobbied for by UK Finance and a number of NGOs, as the hon. Member for Bishop Auckland set out. I can assure the Committee that the Government remain a steadfast supporter of NGOs working in conflict areas. The Government engaged with them while the Bill was in the other place, and we will continue to do so. We recognise that it is important to ensure that this work continues, where possible, in sanctioned countries.

It is equally vital, however, that we have appropriate safeguards in place that preserve our foreign policy priorities, by ensuring compliance with sanctions, but also serve to protect the NGOs and help prevent the sector from becoming attractive to criminals looking to circumvent our laws.

Amendment 18 calls on the Government to establish a fast-track process for dealing with requests for exceptions and licences for humanitarian purposes. I can assure hon. Members that the Government make every effort to prioritise urgent and humanitarian cases, where there is a risk of harm or a threat to life, and will continue to do so. However, we believe that any prioritisation criteria for considering licences and exceptions must remain as flexible as possible, to ensure that the Government can consistently prioritise the most important cases, including humanitarian cases where appropriate.

The process for considering licences is best done administratively and on a case-by-case basis. Government Departments will, of course, continue to reach out to the NGO sector to ensure that NGOs understand how that process works for humanitarian licence applications. Given the number of Departments involved—typically four: the Foreign Office, the Home Office, the Department for International Trade and the Department for International Development—and the many rightly differing derogations, exceptions and grounds for licensing that are involved, it would not be straightforward to operate a fast-track process as suggested by the amendment. To get each application right demands a tailored approach, because the facts differ greatly from case to case. Therefore the Government believe that it would not be prudent to establish a single fast-track process, which may impede the Government’s ability to assess cases accurately, and will be unwieldy to operate given the different ways in which the various types of sanctions work.

A fast-track process might also create perverse results—such as where an urgent request for a licence to allow a designated person access to medicine would have to come second to a routine application in respect of humanitarian activity that only involves changing the details of bank accounts. For all these reasons, we do not consider that a new and administratively burdensome requirement ought to be added to sanctions regulations.

Amendment 19 suggests that a consultation be undertaken for an overarching framework for exceptions and licences. The NGOs and UK Finance have called for that, as the hon. Member for Bishop Auckland said.

It must be said that we have carried out a consultation on our White Paper, including roundtables with banks and NGOs. We are still talking to them and have set up a working group with them. We intend to use the opportunity to improve licences—such as general licences for humanitarian activity—and we will issue guidance. We have been clear that we will do that, and because of that consultation we do not feel that the amendment is necessary. We have listened to the comments of all respondents and we intend to design a post-Brexit licensing framework that is fully informed by those comments. That is an ongoing process and one in which we are enthusiastically engaged.

Comprehensive regulations that will be laid before Parliament and debated will include detailed information on the exceptions and licences that are appropriate for each regime. We also intend to continue to consult with industry to ensure that the framework allows us to be flexible and has the minimum possible effect on industry whilst having the maximum effect on the intended targets of the sanctions. An overarching framework for licences will not allow us the flexibility that we need for each regime. For example, the licensing grounds for a proliferation regime should be different from those of a misappropriation or counterterrorism regime. Furthermore, the timetable for conducting such a consultation after the commencement of the Bill makes little sense. By then, we expect that the relevant sanctions regulations—with the appropriate exceptions and licensing arrangements for each regime currently existing in EU law—will already have been made and debated by Parliament. We fear that a further consultation would add confusion at a time when we would be working hard to ensure a smooth transition.

The Government have committed in the Bill—clause 37 —to issuing guidance about sanctions regulations. As the guidance is developed, we will engage with stakeholders, as we already do for guidance that is published on the implementation of sanctions.

Photo of Alison Thewliss Alison Thewliss Shadow SNP Spokesperson (Cities), Shadow SNP Spokesperson (Treasury)

Could the Economic Secretary give more clarity on the timescale? We have the Bill just now; how soon will the guidance appear? The current guidance is not really useful in terms of how the sanctions landscape works.

Photo of John Glen John Glen Minister of State (Treasury) (City), The Economic Secretary to the Treasury

I cannot give a precise timetable. I will consult officials and write to the Committee to give clarification on that as soon as I can.

Amendment 20 would make it plain on the face of the Bill that exceptions to sanctions can be made for humanitarian development, reconstruction and peace-building activities. Broadening such exceptions to cover such a broad group of organisations and activities goes much further than the Government intended and is incompatible with both the policy intent and our obligations under UN and EU regimes. The Government are currently able to issue specific licences on application from humanitarian and other agencies. The licensing provision is read across and extended in clauses 15(2)(b) and 14(3)(a) to allow Ministers to issue both general and specific licences. It is the Government’s intention to use the power to issue general licences where appropriate. One key area in which it is foreseen that general licences could be written is for the purpose of delivering humanitarian aid. We should also be wary of the confusion caused by listing these activities but not others, such as denuclearisation activities. To add one would imply that the other was outside the scope of the Bill.

New clause 5 would require the Government to provide detailed annual reports to Parliament on its use of humanitarian exemptions and on licences issued for humanitarian purposes. However, given that experience shows that the number of licences for humanitarian purposes is likely to be relatively small, the Government believe that, rather than requiring a separate report in law, it would be more efficient to include figures on the use of exceptions and licences issued as part of the annual report that clause 27 requires the FCO to issue.

Hon. Members have understandably taken a keen interest in exceptions and licences and how they relate to humanitarian purposes, so it may help if I give more detail about how the Government intend to use our new licensing flexibilities under the Bill. The design of each sanctions regulation will take account of what exceptions or special licensing arrangements are appropriate for the type of sanctions regime, in line with the UK’s foreign policy goals. The explanatory memorandum for each statutory instrument will make clear what exceptions or licensing arrangements have been included for each sanctions regime.

Hon. Members will be able to consider exceptions and licences on a case-by-case basis when the statutory instruments are laid before Parliament, and full guidance will be issued for all sectors. We will continue to engage with representatives of those different sectors to ensure that any additional sector-specific guidance addresses their concerns. We will publish more information about our policy thinking on how some of the many forms of exceptions and licensing will work under the Bill.

Photo of Anneliese Dodds Anneliese Dodds Shadow Minister (Treasury) 10:30, 27 February 2018

I am grateful to the Minister for that explanation. I shall speak briefly on a couple of points.

First, the Minister helpfully stated that the Government do support NGO operations in countries subject to conflict. Will he be more explicit and state that the Government support NGO operations in countries subject to sanctions? That is exactly what we are talking about now. The concern for many in the development community is that the balance is currently towards a presumption against activities occurring in countries where there are sanctions, rather than that being feasible for those organisations when fulfilling international obligations, as we would expect.

Secondly, on amendment 18 on the fast-track process, I was encouraged by some of what the Minister said but was slightly concerned by the reference to the Government continuing current processes, with the suggestion that those are adequate. I have certainly received information, as I am sure other colleagues have—the hon. Member for Glasgow Central referred to some of this—on the impact of fuel sanctions. I understand that delays in getting appropriate licences and exemptions in relation to sanctions on fuel in Syria have led to farcical situations in which, for example, a hospital was destroyed before it was possible to get the fuel that would serve that hospital. The current system is not working at the moment. I wonder whether we may have more of a focus on not following existing practices, which clearly are not operating adequately.

The Minister suggested that the fast-track process would lead to some kind of inappropriate, one-size-fits-all system where, for example, a need for medicine in one situation could be trumped by humanitarian concerns. Surely medical needs could come under humanitarian concerns? What we are really talking about is the need for a fast-track approach to humanitarian peace-building action that will be interpreted sensitively and intelligently, but which could get away from the current impediments for NGOs.

Photo of John Glen John Glen Minister of State (Treasury) (City), The Economic Secretary to the Treasury

I am happy to address those points. I can of course confirm that NGOs in countries subject to sanctions are still able to access these provisions. On the hon. Lady’s point on the fast-tracking process, and the point on fuel sanctions, I said what I said in response to the amendments, but we are obviously living in a very imperfect situation, with highly challenging environments. It will not be possible to get things right every time, but I think the provisions in this legislation give us the best opportunity to do so. I think I have set out the Government’s position clearly.

Photo of Helen Goodman Helen Goodman Shadow Minister (Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs)

The Economic Secretary is right that the situation is complex, and he is right that we do not want to add to the complexity with new requirements and new consultations. However, I am sorry to say that I do not think he has made the case for not accepting our new clause 5 on reporting to Parliament.

I want to draw the Committee’s attention to an article from The Guardian of 23 July 2014, which illustrates the problem. It is headed: “UK arms export licences for Russia still in place, despite claims of embargo”. It reported:

“More than 200 licences to sell British weapons to Russia, including missile-launching equipment,”

were still in place at the time,

“despite David Cameron’s claim in the Commons…that the government had imposed an absolute arms embargo against the country”.

I think we have seen a great reluctance on the part of the Government to be more open. What is going on with these sanctions, exemptions and licences is a highly sensitive political area. It seems to me that it would help the Government if we had more openness. We could then have arguments about what was really going on, not about what people might surmise or imagine. I wish to press new clause 5 to the vote.

Photo of Steve McCabe Steve McCabe Labour, Birmingham, Selly Oak

We come to new clause 5 later. At the moment, we are dealing with amendment 18.

Photo of Helen Goodman Helen Goodman Shadow Minister (Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs)

I do not want to press amendment 18. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

Clause 15 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clause 16 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clause 17