WHILE UK ministers continue to substitute urgent action on Israel’s genocide in Gaza with empty expressions of ‘deep concern’, it was welcome that the Scottish Parliament returned from summer recess with a sense of purpose.
Scottish ministers can’t end the UK’s export of weapons to Israel. However, financial support for some defence companies has long undermined their necessary calls on the UK Government to ban arms transfers.
On Wednesday, the First Minister announced a range of significant measures, including halting Scottish funding for arms companies involved in Israel.
In Scotland, Amnesty has been researching the grants awarded via Scottish Enterprise to some of the world’s biggest arms companies for over a year. We have engaged with ministers, MSPs, parliamentary committees and Scottish Enterprise directly, raising the alarm about the risk of potential complicity.
Initially we were told there was nothing to see here. In February, Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes sought to reassure us that “grants which contribute to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza should not be paid and existing Scottish Government policies are designed to address this”.
In fact, we found Leonardo UK, a company which reportedly makes components for F-35 jets in its Edinburgh factory, continued to receive financial awards from Scottish Enterprise throughout 2023 and 2024.
Earlier this year, Amnesty supported legal action against the UK Government for its policy of continuing to supply spare parts for the jets in the full knowledge of the risk they will be used to commit genocide.
However, Leonardo UK, a manufacturer of these components, received almost £500,000 of Scottish public money in 2024/25.
The unfolding genocide being livestreamed into everyone’s living rooms didn’t trigger any kind of process to stop these grants being paid.
In fact, several millions of Scottish public funds have been administered to some of the world’s biggest defence companies without any applicant failing a check, or even being flagged as having the potential to negatively impact the human rights of people on the receiving end of their products. That is not a system that should ever have been defended.
Following pressure from Amnesty and others, Scottish Enterprise reviewed its human rights due diligence policy earlier this year. Just before summer recess, and under renewed calls for action, Forbes announced the resulting recommendations.
The review – somewhat confusingly – “affirmed the strength of existing processes while identifying areas for enhancement”.
Fast forward two months and one more, very significant and much needed improvement has at last been identified. Grants must no longer be paid to defence companies whose products or services are provided to countries where there is plausible evidence of genocide being committed by that country, including Israel.
Of course, we knew that, as did so many. As external affairs secretary Angus Robertson set out himself this week, the international court of justice found plausible risk of genocide in January 2024.
When we first raised our concerns directly with the deputy first minister in November last year, the Scottish Government had grounds to act immediately.
However, we should still welcome real progress. The Scottish Government has now made the right call. We will of course be monitoring the detail of how the policy is implemented. The devil is always in the detail.
While the condition of genocide set out for halting funding is aimed at addressing the immediate and very serious situation in Gaza, it isn’t the correct approach to defence companies more broadly.
The external affairs secretary referenced international law repeatedly in his contribution during last Wednesday’s debate on Palestine. He was correct to do so, but the reality is that violations of international humanitarian law shouldn’t need to reach the threshold of a genocide to justify refusing public support to the companies fuelling those crimes.
In the flurry of Wednesday’s announcement it was also easy to miss another caveat. The Scottish Government’s policy against directly financing the manufacture of munitions has been reversed.
It is this policy ministers have pointed to repeatedly when defending their support for defence companies against criticism on ethical and human rights grounds. This decision makes our work on pushing for real reform of human rights due diligence guidance more vital than ever.
Last month we met with Scottish Enterprise. As well as stressing our concerns about the serious risks of contributing to violations of international humanitarian law, we discussed some of the detail of their review’s recommendations.
There is potential for improvements. For example, we were told that the frequency of checks described above will be moved to an annual basis. Once again, the detail will be what matters.
If there’s a common theme in all of this, it is that every inch of progress on this issue has come after sustained campaigning, it has never been gifted.
The small print behind the First Minister’s announcement will need to be scrutinised and our push for broader reform will continue.
Meanwhile, our calls on the UK Government to pressure Israel into an immediate and permanent ceasefire must not dissipate.
Liz Thomson is Amnesty International’s acting Scotland Programme Director
