The Queen's Speech flagged a draft Export Control and Non-Proliferation Bill "to improve the transparency of export controls and to establish their purposes". By publishing a draft bill the government says it hopes to "consult on detailed proposals for new legislation".

Although the government says that it has already implemented "a number of significant changes in export control since May 1997" - such as new criteria to prevent the issuing of export licences where there is evidence of human rights abuse and a ban on the export of landmines - the law in this area has not fundamentally changed since 1939. The bill would deliver two of the "key recommendations" made in the 1996 Scott Report into the export of defence equipment to Iraq. The 1998 white paper on strategic export controls proposed that the purpose of export controls should be outlined in legislation to avoid "confusion between government policy and the law on this matter", and subject secondary legislation to parliamentary scrutiny. Additionally it called for the modernisation of existing arrangements to take into consideration new "intangible" means of transferring arms technology - such as email, fax and the crossing of borders in person - and so strengthen controls on weapons of mass destruction.

Existing arrangements apply to "physical" hardware - such as missiles and tanks - and only to the information needed to develop controlled military technology when it is exported in physical forms such as computer disc and paper documents.

The bill will introduce controls in all three of these recommended areas and introduce controls on the trafficking and brokering of light weapons and small arms and equipment used for torture.

The DTI has hailed these provisions saying that they would provide for "greater democratic accountability" for export controls and "increase transparency about decision-making", creating a "more effective" export control regime and "reassure those concerned about the risks of arms being supplied to areas of conflict or human rights violations".

Although existing powers prevent the trafficking and brokering of equipment for binding United Nation's embargoes, current legislation does not cover other embargoes. The bill would also provide new powers to prohibit the export of military equipment to destinations covered by embargoes outside of the UN.