A highly critical report has found extensive flaws in the British government’s arms sales strategy.

Based on analysis of the Yemen conflict, the study urges a reduction in weapons exports to conflict zones and states involved in human rights abuses.

“Our conclusion is based on copious, authoritative information, and is compelling,” said Roy Isbister of Saferworld, joint authors of the report. “All of the warring parties in Yemen are repeatedly in breach of international law. Yet our voice is ignored by a government that will quote our work as ballast to its own arguments in other countries when it suits.”

The report by Control Arms UK, a coalition of non-governmental organisations, was submitted to the committees on arms export controls (CAEC), the parliamentary watchdog responsible for policing the government’s compliance with domestic and international arms export policies. CAEC has made the report public as part of its inquiry into British arms exports in 2017.

Fundamental changes are urged to save lives and reduce the impact of UK-manufactured weapons. The report reinforces concerns raised by CAEC last year following a review of UK arms sales in 2016, when the body called for greater regulation, transparency and compliance in the government’s decision-making process. The government response then acknowledged improvements were needed but failed to agree that the system fell short.

Taking Yemen as a case study, the report uses statistical analysis to support the case for a suspension of arms to the Saudi coalition, as well as other warzones and countries on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) watchlist for human rights breaches. The authors advocate a joined-up approach to conflict resolution, with improvements to development and peace-building initiatives currently supported by the Department for International Development (DfID).

Quoting statistics on arms supplies to Saudi Arabia for use in the Yemen conflict, the report shows that the British government authorised 18,107 open license deliveries of arms and dual-purpose equipment between 2015 and 2017, with no disclosure required of the quantities or value involved. A delivery could range from a single part for an aircraft valued at £1 to 20 Eurofighter Typhoon jets valued at £2.5bn. The figures exclude authorisations under single individual export and broker licenses.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Report questions lack of transparency surrounding scale and quantity of weapons sales. Photograph: Khaled Abdullah/Reuters

“The reporting on the use of open licences is wholly inadequate, as the type and quantities of equipment are a mystery,” said Isbister. “Are we talking a few nuts and bolts, or containers full of critical fighter aircraft components? We don’t know, and the government won’t tell. It’s not good enough, not by a long shot.”

Official UN statistics suggest the death toll in Yemen as of March 2018 was in the region of 6,592, with a further 10,470 people injured. Control Arms referred to statistics gathered by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (Acled) that indicated the war in Yemen had caused more than 60,000 conflict-related civilian and combatant fatalities since 2016. Acled continues to collect data for 2015, which could see the total estimated death toll for the conflict rise to 70-80,000, excluding those whose deaths are attributable to disease or malnutrition.

Detailing the devastating impact of conflict on Yemen’s infrastructure, Yemen Data Project statistics revealed that of the 3,362 air strikes carried out in 2018, 420 hit residential areas, 231 struck farms, 95 hit civilian buses or vehicles, and 57 hit educational facilities or marketplaces. Ten attacks took place on medical facilities and two on NGO camps.”

Noting that only 75 of 1,015 incidents affecting infrastructure were analysed by the joint incident investigation team, the report called for more comprehensive investigation of such attacks.

More than 24 million people in Yemen are in need of humanitarian assistance, almost half of them children, and food shortages continue to affect up to 16 million people, the report’s authors noted.

The study’s recommendations included:

Greater regulation of “brass-plate” companies that assist in brokering arms deals while shareholders and directors remain “invisible” to UK authorities.They are often used to conceal corrupt practices including the payment of bribes and fraud.

More transparent investigations into breaches of arms control regulation. The UK has a poor record of prosecution, with complex cases often referred to the Serious Fraud Office for investigation only to be halted subsequently because of undisclosed “national security interests”.

Improved reporting around open arms export licences. At present, open licences only require the seller to tell the government the number of deliveries made and not the quantity or type.

Greater oversight and involvement by DfID in granting arms export licenses, since information passed to the department by aid agencies operating in conflict zones should enable it to assess the impact of UK-supplied weapons more fully. At present, licences are granted by the Department for International Trade and the FCO, with DfID limited to an advisory role.

The report’s authors also recommended that the government should comply with its own FCO annual human rights report by ending arms supplies to countries guilty of human rights abuses. According to statistics supplied by NGO Action on Armed Violence, between 2008 and 2017, the UK government authorised arms export licenses worth £12bn to such countries, with a further £10bn in dual-use (military and non-military uses) licenses to countries on the FCO watchlist.

The report’s authors challenged the government on its claim that the UK’s export controls system is “among the best and most robust in the world, with each application assessed on a case-by-case basis”, a stock response to criticism of existing measures. The report called for comparison with states such as Germany, where there is a “more restrictive and accountable approach” to weapon supplies in Yemen, and questioned why CAEC have consistently failed to hold the government to account.

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“The largest failing of the UK export control system in the last decade or more, by a mile, is the government’s willingness to supply the Saudi- and UAE-led war effort in Yemen,” said Isbister. “CAEC had almost nothing to say on the matter in last year’s report; Yemen is completely absent from the terms of reference for the current enquiry, and we are at a loss to understand why.”

The Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle said: “I share the concern of NGOs that CAEC is ineffective at holding the government to account over its routine contravention of its own arms export controls. It is extremely deferential to the government, which rejects even the most piecemeal of its recommendations. I hope that this year members will work together to push the government for a radical overhaul of licensing, enforcement and auditing.”

• This article was amended on 21 February 2019 to clarify that the Acled fatality data deals only with conflict-related deaths in Yemen since 2016; detail was added of the total estimated death toll, which excludes death by disease and malnutrition. In addition, we said the infrastructure data was compiled by Acled, when it was in fact the Yemen Data Project.