Scotland: Scottish government must review due diligence on grants for arms companies

Scottish ministers cannot ignore ICJ legal findings on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Amnesty International has called for a full review of how due diligence is conducted on arms companies in receipt of grants from Scottish Enterprise.

In a letter to the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Kate Forbes, Amnesty warned that current human rights due diligence procedures at Scottish Enterprise may not be fit for purpose after it was revealed that no arms company – even those linked to states who have breached international law and who have been accused of war crimes - has ever failed a human rights check.

Freedom of Information requests lodged by Amnesty showed that in the last year alone £2.5 million of Scottish public money was paid to major arms companies, including BAE Systems, Boeing, Thales Group and Leonardo UK.

The freedom of information disclosures also showed that earlier this year, a PCS union representative within Scottish Enterprise sought reassurance from management after concerns from members that Scottish Enterprise support for defence contractors providing weapons to Israel could make staff complicit in war crimes. The issue was deemed too complex for Scottish Enterprise to answer and was escalated to the Scottish Government for response.

In a letter to Kate Forbes, Amnesty’s Scotland Director Neil Cowan wrote of Amnesty’s “concern that the current human rights due diligence process at Scottish Enterprise is inadequate and is failing to ensure that Scotland upholds its international obligations. This casts serious doubt upon the credibility and effectiveness of a process that should be designed to protect against human rights abuses and not to waive through companies whose activities are linked to such abuses.

The Scottish government’s position is that it does not fund the manufacture of weapons, yet grants are provided to some of the world’s biggest arms companies. Public lines of response on this issue are undermined by information disclosures which show the PCS union approached Scottish Enterprise management to express concerns that its members may be complicit in war crimes in relation to support for defence contractors and their supply chain companies providing weapons to Israel. Ultimately, it is wholly unsatisfactory to claim Scottish Enterprise grants are not involved in the manufacture of arms without an ongoing monitoring process in place which takes account of the complexity of international manufacture and supply chains.

Amnesty is calling for an urgent review of Scottish Enterprise’s funding for arms companies. The review should seek to determine whether public funding in any way contributes to the supply of weapons or their components to any state accused of international humanitarian law violations or crimes against humanity. The review’s terms of reference should be set in consultation with stakeholders and informed by international principles relevant to the arms trade and conflict-affected areas.”

Neil Cowan, Amnesty International UK’s Scotland Director, said:  

“It’s time the Scottish government acknowledged that it has international obligations in relation to its funding for arms companies and took steps to examine whether they are being met.

“Businesses funded by the Scottish government have been linked to countries accused of human rights violations in Gaza and Yemen, however year after year some of the world’s biggest arms manufacturers are routinely waived through due diligence checks.

“Recent rulings from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in relation to Israel have warned all states that they must act to prevent genocide and should serve as a wake-up call to Scottish ministers that they have a duty to ensure thorough human rights due diligence processes are in place.

“We need to see a full review of how public funding is being used by arms companies and why due diligence checks are failing to flag clear human rights concerns.”

Read our letter to the Deputy First Minister here or download it below: