Arms exports from UK raise questions, MPs say

The UK government has approved more than 3,000 export licences for military sales to countries which it believes have questionable records on human rights, MPs say.

The House of Commons Committees on Arms Export Controls says the value of the existing export licences to the 27 countries in question exceeds £12bn.

This includes significant sales to China, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Sales to Sri Lanka raise "very serious questions", the report adds.

The committees consist of four select committees meeting and working together: business, defence, foreign affairs, and international development.

The chairman, Conservative MP Sir John Stanley, said he was astonished at the scale and value of the licences.

There were, for example, more than 60 licences for Iran, including components for military electronics and what is described as "equipment employing cryptography".

This appears to be a catch-all term which encompasses a variety of equipment, much of it in the telecommunications sector.

Similar equipment figured prominently in China's £1.4bn worth of licences, which also included some small arms ammunition, even though there is a European Union arms embargo on Beijing.
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