From Lord Sainsbury, Lord Sainsbury of Turville Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for Science Department of Trade and Industry London
Your editorial and article on the Export Control Bill were inaccurate and misleading (23 February, p 3 and p 5).
Your editorial accused the government of “imposing” the bill, failing to “compromise” and implied there had been no debate. It failed to mention nearly four years of prior consultation, significant changes made to original government proposals specifically to address academic concerns, and the announcement we made last October of a full public consultation upon the controls to be introduced under the bill, to be held before the controls come into force.
The bill will not lead to control of publication of scientific papers. As made clear last October, new controls will specifically exclude scientific knowledge in “the public domain” (this includes information which is put into the public domain, including by publication) and my statement that the bill is fully compatible with the Human Rights Act, which protects freedom of expression, is recorded on the front of the bill.
New Scientist also failed to mention that the bill for the first time imposes strict limits upon what goods and technology the government can control. Under current legislation, there are no limits whatsoever.
Advertisement
The bill will not make licensing of foreign students “compulsory”. There are no powers in the bill to license foreign students and suggestions that ministerial approval will be required for coffee-break discussions are simply absurd.
The only new controls which could conceivably apply to discussions in Britain will apply only where a person knows, or has been informed by government, that such information if communicated to a particular person or persons is or may be intended for use in connection with a weapons of mass destruction programme or missiles capable of their delivery. I imagine most scientists would wish to avoid their work contributing to such programmes.
Far from being an unprecedented introduction of sweeping new powers as you imply, the bill seeks only to allow existing controls on exports of goods and technology in tangible form to be extended to exports of the same goods and technology in intangible form. You also fail to mention that controls on e-mails and other electronic transfers of civil technology with military applications have been in force under European legislation since September 2000. Collaborative research has flourished since then, and it will continue to flourish after the bill comes into force.
