Ministers were today accused by MPs of misjudging the risk that British arms exports to countries such as Libya and Bahrain would be used to suppress their own people.
The Commons Committees on Arms Export Controls disclosed that as recently as last year, UK firms were given licences to sell equipment ranging from small arms and tear gas canisters to armoured personnel carriers to countries in the region.
While they welcomed the revocation of 156 export licences to Libya, Bahrain, Egypt and Tunisia since the recent uprising, they said the Government still needed to reconcile its wish to promote arms sales with its duty to uphold human rights.
In its report, the committee listed details of some of the most recent export licences granted for sales to countries in North Africa and the Middle East.
Last year alone, approval was given for the export to Libya of small arms ammunition, crowd control ammunition, tear gas/irritant ammunition and technology for the use of infrared and thermal imaging equipment.
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For Bahrain, licences were issued covering submachine guns, sniper rifles, CS hand grenades, smoke canisters, stun grenades, and tear gas and riot control agents.
Body armour and night vision goggles have been approved for Yemen, small arms ammunition for Syria, and sniper rifles, aircraft components and armoured personnel carriers for Saudi Arabia.
The report said that the Government’s review on the issuing of licences for countries in the region should now be extended to cover all authoritarian regimes around the world.
The Committees on Arms Export Controls is made up of the Commons committees on Foreign Affairs, Defence, International Development and Business, Innovation and Skills.
The Control Arms Campaign — which brings together groups such as Amnesty International and Oxfam — renewed its warning about a rushed review of past sales.
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Anna MacDonald of Oxfam said: “This is a review about the export of deadly weapons, not toys or potatoes.
“The Government needs to conduct this review with due care and consideration. It needs to be a thorough review and should not be rushed through.
“This is not a tick-box exercise. It has grave implications for the lives of people around the globe. As a global leader, the UK needs to ensure it does its utmost to get this right.”
Amnesty International’s UK arms programme director Oliver Sprague said: “Plainly decisions made in the past on arms sales to Middle East and North Africa have been wrong.
“Today’s committee report has concurred with our findings that successive governments have ’misjudged the risk’ of weapons going to that region.
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“Licences should be rejected where there is a clear risk that equipment would be used in human rights abuses. Government decisions to license ammunition and crowd control equipment to Libya, for example, were clearly wrong.
A Department for Business spokesman said: “The Government welcomes the report of the Committees on Arms Export Controls.
“We will consider the report’s detailed conclusions and recommendations carefully and will submit our response to Parliament in due course.”