Government Skeleton (High Court of Justice Hearing)

This provides an outline of the government’s case as heard at the High Court of Justice on 7th and 8th February 2017. It responds to the grounds of challenge and asserts its position that the Secretary of State asked the relevant questions as required under the applicable law, and has taken reasonable, and rational, steps to obtain and consider the relevant information necessary to take these decisions. It submits that the SoS has rationally concluded he is in possession of sufficient information to conduct the requisite risk assessment under Criterion 2(c) and the suspension mechanism does not apply, and further that the conclusion that there is no clear risk that UK licensed items might be used in the commission of serious IHL violations is rational. It submits that it has made this assessment based on information, some of which is not publicly available, and it is not sufficient for the claimant to point to other bodies which have concluded that there have been or may have been past IHL violations by the Saudi-led Coalition.