The remit of the committee is to examine the Government's expenditure, administration and policy on strategic exports (licensing of arms exports and other controlled goods).
In 2015 to 2016 the committee did not meet for over 9 months after the chairman Sir John Stanley retired as an MP, because of a long delay in appointing new members. Chris White was elected chair in February 2016.[1][2] In March 2016 an inquiry into the use of UK-manufactured weapons in Yemen was launched.[3]
The committee was abolished, and its functions subsumed into the Business and Trade Committee, in January 2024.[4]