- guardian.co.uk, Thursday June 28 2001 02.25 BST
The export control bill, published by the Department of Trade and Industry increases government accountability over weapons exports.
It also modernises legislation that has changed little since 1939, for example by ensuring licences are required for the sale of weapons technology by email as well as in paper form, and introducing controls on arms trafficking and brokering by British firms.
Campaigners welcomed the publication of legislation, missing from four Queen's speeches despite government commitment to an ethical foreign policy, but warned that "the devil will be in the detail" of secondary legislation.
They want ministers to adopt the recommendation of four select committees for MPs to be granted prior scrutiny of arms export licences.
A spokeswoman for the charity Saferworld said: "The devil is going to be in the detail. We will be looking for the principle of prior parliamentary scrutiny and would like to see the European Union code of conduct criteria [on countries to which exports are granted] incorporated into this legislation."
