Select committee calls for new Foreign Office approach to claims international law was breached on both sides in Yemen

The foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, is facing calls to reverse UK policy and back an independent international investigation into alleged Saudi breaches of international humanitarian law in Yemen.

The call from the international development select committee came as new figures showed the UK granted arms export licences for use in Saudi Arabia valued at £530m in the first quarter of this year. The figures were compiled from official government figures by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade.

The pressure for Johnson to change Foreign Office policy and unequivocally back an international inquiry came after his department released a string of corrections to previous oral and written statements made by ministers that had assured MPs the government had assessed whether there were breaches of international humanitarian law (IHL) in Yemen by Saudi Arabia, and concluded no breach had taken place. The corrections, published last week as the Commons broke for the summer recess, stated the government was unable to assess whether such breaches had occurred.

The corrections, the Foreign Office said, were simply required to undo an inadvertent error, and did not betray an attempt to mislead parliament, or a change of policy. Three different Foreign Office ministers had assured MPs that the government was satisfied no breach of international law had taken place in a civil war that has seen allegations of war crimes on both sides.

In a letter published on Tuesday, Stephen Twigg, the international development select committee chairman, appealed to Johnson to take a fresh approach to the civil war in Yemen.

The international development select committee in a previous report had called for the sale of arms to be suspended pending an inquiry into alleged breaches.

In his letter to Johnson, Twigg wrote: “Last week’s corrections are a significant revision of the evidence the government has given to my committee and to parliament and call into question the depth of the UK government’s specific assessments of Saudi operations or of the evidence heard by my committee on alleged violations of IHL.”

Twigg called on the government to extend its existing corrections of previous ministerial statements so it also corrected evidence submitted by ministers to his own committee’s inquiry, including its response last week to the select committee’s report on its willingness to continue to grant export licences.

He pointed out: “Only last week in its response to our report, the government insisted that, with regard to the information available to them, they have assessed that the key test on the risk of violations of IHL had not been met.”

He added: “The government’s corrections revise these claims, particularly with regards the scope of Ministry of Defence assessments. They are now unable to assess whether there has been a breach of IHL.”

In its response to the committee last week, the government also said it was not opposing calls for an international independent investigation into alleged breaches of international humanitarian law but “first and foremost it wanted to see the Saudi government investigate alleged breaches of IHL which are attributed to them and for the investigations to be thorough and conclusive”.

The UK government argued the Saudis would have the best insight into their own military procedures, adding the same process of self-assessment is adopted by Nato countries.

The UK government also pointed out that Saudi Arabia had said it was conducting an investigation, setting out at the end of January how these investigations would be conducted. No official report has been published.

Johnson, in his first week in office, has already hosted a dinner in London to discuss the Yemen crisis with key allies, including the US secretary of state, John Kerry. He is now being supplemented in the foreign office by Sir Alan Duncan, appointed Europe minister and previously the government special envoy on Yemen.

The Saudi-led coalition against the Houthi rebels has been accused by the UN of killing more civilians than all other forces fighting in the conflict.

A total of 20 human rights organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have urged the UN to put the coalition back on a blacklist for killing and maiming children during the war.