Gulf state paid British arms manufacturers almost £4bn in past four years in face of human rights concerns
The UK has granted arms export licences to Saudi Arabia worth almost £4bn over the past four years despite growing fears about the human rights record in the kingdom during the Arab spring, new figures show.
Last year the government approved licences worth £112m for 209 items, including crowd control ammunition grenades, components for military aircraft and combat vehicles, and components for electronic warfare.
The details have been set out by the watchdog Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT), which pulled together figures from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) for the value and destination of licences approved in 2012.
According to the CAAT study, the UK sold £433m worth of military equipment and services to Oman last year, £306m to the US and £142m to Brazil.
But CAAT's concern focuses on continued arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which last year had licences approved worth £26.2m and £4.6m respectively.
The government insists the rules for granting licences are robust and transparent, but campaigners argue the regulations still allow substantial arms exports to authoritarian regimes.
"These figures for 2012 show the UK arms industry continues to focus on the Gulf states, despite their reputation for human rights abuse and lack of democracy," said a spokesman for CAAT.
The group points out Saudi Arabia's ranking in the The Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index 2012fell from the previous year - it was given zero points for "electoral process and pluralism". The only countries ranked lower in the 170 strong table were Syria, Chad, Guinea-Bissau and North Korea.
Saudi Arabia's press was assessed as "not free" by the Freedom House Freedom of the Press Index 2013 which listed it as joint 182 of 197 countries listed.
"The prime minister and arms company executives visit Saudi Arabia to beg for orders and routinely roll out the red carpet for Saudi delegations to the UK, as they will be doing in September for the DSEi arms fair," the spokesman added.
"It's time to end this damaging and dangerous relationship and stop selling arms to this repressive regime."
According to government's figures, the UK last year licensed weaponry and other military equipment and components worth £111.7 million to Saudi Arabia.
This included aircraft, helicopters, and drones worth £81.4m; armoured vehicles and tanks worth £8.8m; and grenades bombs worth up to £3.2m.
A spokeswoman for BIS insisted the UK took enormous care before granting applications - and there was no evidence any British exports had been used to internal repression in any of the Gulf states.
She insisted the criteria were rigorous and the government had turned down applications where there was doubt what the equipment might be used for.
"The UK government takes is export licensing responsibilities seriously and operates one of the most rigorous arms export control regimes in the world. Any application to export a product covered by an export control is assessed against internationally recognised criteria on a case by case basis. Each assessment we make takes into account the intended end use of the equipment, the behaviour of the end user, the risk of diversion and the prevailing circumstances in the country concerned. We pay particular attention to allegations of human rights abuses."
Alistair Burt, the foreign office minister for counter proliferation, has repeatedly denied that Britain has granted export licences to countries where the equipment might be used to suppress dissent.
"We do not and will not issue licences where we judge there is a clear risk that the proposed export might provoke or prolong regional or internal conflicts, or where it might be used to facilitate internal repression," Burt said last year.
David Cameron visited Saudi Arabia twice last year during which he defended arms sales to Gulf countries as "entirely legitimate", particularly as the arms industry supports 600,000 jobs in the UK.
The prime minister said he had travelled to the Gulf to support British businesses and help them "to compete and thrive in the global race" .
Ministers argue defence and security exports support legitimate rights to self-defence. They concede the government does have concerns about human rights in Saudi Arabia and deny the commercial relationship with the kingdom prevents the UK from speaking frankly and openly about the problems.
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