§ Mr. HainTo ask the President of the Board of Trade how many applications his Department received since 1990 for export licences of(a) machine tools and (b) weapons; and how many of these were (i) approved and (ii) covered by export credit guarantees.
§ Mr. Needham[holding answer 7 December 1992]: Following is the information:
Applications from 1 January 1990 to 8 December 1992 Received Licences issued Machine tools 1,028 926 Weapons 29,670 27,937 Note: For this purpose "machine tools" is taken to cover any applications falling within headings IL 1075, IL 1088, IL 1091, IL 1370, PL 7027 or ML 18 of the Export of Goods (Control) Order 1991 as amended. "Weapons" is taken to cover all ML headings in the Order except ML 18.
Under arrangements applying up to privatisation of ECGD's Insurance Services Group in December 1991, the vast bulk of ECGD's business was underwritten on a basis which did not involve identification of the nature of the goods. It is therefore not possible to provide the information requested in respect of export credit guarantees.