WESTMINSTER’S cross-party drones group will begin a high-level inquiry into the use of drones tomorrow. The inquiry results from concerns about the increasing use of this advanced and deadly technology in a military context and a lack of regulation and scrutiny around drone deployment.

Developments in drone technology mean we can be confident that significant aspects of future military capability will be “remote”. It is vital that we increase the dialogue and understanding around the use of drones in conflict.

We need transparency in the parameters for their use. These are sorely lacking at present and it is essential that we also consider the impact upon those given the task of operating drones, to learn lessons from the evidence of significant mental health issues faced by United States drone operators.

It is our job as politicians to ensure there are proper, transparent processes underpinning drone policy and that deployment is undertaken responsibly without human rights infringements. The backdrop against which we launch the inquiry is one of unsettling international uncertainty with the Donald Trump, the president-elect, an unknown quantity whose commitment to Nato and 50 years of international and diplomatic security seems incoherent.

We have to start with the basic question of UK policy on drone strikes. This is a key issue on which the Government has brought precious little clarity. What is clear is that we are dealing with situations where military action – drone strikes – has not been sanctioned by Parliament.

The UN Charter allows states to use lethal force in self defence but there is a dearth of evidence for this and a growing body of evidence that drones used by the UK are for a more worrying and potentially illegal purpose.

There have been alarming reports of what looks like covert UK drone activity in Yemen and possibly beyond, adding to the sense of a lack of transparency and stealth over what is going on in that country. The UK Government has avoided scrutiny on arms sales to Saudi Arabia and involvement in military action in Yemen for too long, compounded by important concerns about the use of drones. A Whitehall cloud has descended over these questions.

The Ministry of Defence is cagey about where its military drones are deployed. We know some are being used in the Middle East as part of Operation Shader, the action against Islamic State in Syria. But there is a danger that the MoD is not being wholly frank about drone activity, leading to the suspicion that they are being used for extra-judicial tasks, and that may include in Yemen.

The attention of the world was drawn to drones in December 2013 when a wedding party in Yemen’s al-Baitha province was mistakenly hit by a US drone, killing 17 people. The Obama administration has been the most prolific user of drones in warfare. The White House has estimated that, almost exclusively as a result of successful drone strikes, between 2,300 and 2,500 terrorist “combatants” were killed between 2009 and the end of 2015.

There was an admission that between 60 and 115 civilians were killed but also an acknowledgement that the civilian death toll may be significantly higher, and that it simply does not know how many civilians may have died. There is an information vacuum about drones. With a new, more bellicose US president weeks away from inauguration, this may become an even more serious issue.

It is vital that there is a thorough and serious examination of the use of drones. The UK Government is avoiding its responsibilities and our all-party parliamentary group is stepping in to this worrying void to ensure experts are consulted to establish the facts.

The consequences of allowing the UK Government a free hand to strike at will go right to the heart of freedom and democracy. The consequences for the people involved, both on the receiving end of drone strikes and among the service personnel who perform this most stressful job appear to be at the bottom of the Government’s priority pile.

I hope our inquiry can raise these issue to the prominence they merit in a democracy and that prompt UK Government action will follow.

Kirsten Oswald, SNP MP for East Renfrewshire, co-chairs the cross-party parliamentary group on drones.