§ Mr. Ashdownasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what were the costs of the export licensing operations for 1984 and 1985; and what is the estimated increased cost of operating the new export of goods order licensing regime for 1985 and 1986.
§ Mr. ChannonThe costs of my Department's staff handling export licence applications, together with an appropriate share of accommodation costs and overheads are:
£ million 1984 1.21 *1985 1.41 *1986 1.56 * Estimate. No separate estimate has been made of what the costs might be if the new order had not been made.
§ Mr. Ashdownasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many export licence applications he has had since the Export of Goods (Control) Order 1985 came into operation; how many of those applications have been dealt with and how many are pending; and of these, how many have been pending for more than 18 weeks.
§ Mr. Channon25,800 export licence applications have been received since 25 July of which 24,000 have been cleared and 1,800 are pending. Most of the pending cases have been received within the past two weeks. None has been pending for more than 18 weeks.