Amnesty criticises Scottish government for arms firm funding

The FOIs reveal that to date no company has failed Scottish Enterprise’s human rights due diligence checks.

They show that the level of checks is based on the amount of money being requested, not what the company sells or where it sells to.

There are three levels – from £100,000 to £2m, from £2m to £5m, and then above £5m. Grants below £100,000 are not subject to human rights checks.

The papers also show that in the past 18 months Scottish Enterprise has provided grants worth hundreds of thousands of pounds to defence companies including Leonardo, Raytheon and BAE Systems, who all have or have had UK export licences to sell to Israel in the same time period.

BAE Systems Surface Ships LTD received £9,600 from Scottish Enterprise in 2023 and £360,000 in the first half of 2024. Leonardo received £786,125 in 2023 and Raytheon Systems received £500,000 in the first half of 2024.

The companies employ thousands of people in Scotland.

Scottish Enterprise says its human rights due diligence checks involve a detailed examination of a company’s history and profile by searching and reviewing publicly available information.