§ Mr. FaberTo ask the President of the Board of Trade, pursuant to her letter of 3 September, how many applications for export licences her Department has(a) granted and (b) refused under Part III of Schedule 1 to the Export of Goods (Control) Order in each month of 1997. [19283]
§ Mrs. RocheIn due course, statistics of such export licences issued and refused from 1 January up to and including 1 May will be placed in the Library of the House. In addition, the Government will report annually on the state of strategic export controls and their application since 2 May.
§ Ann ClwydTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if she will provide details of how many United Kingdom exporters have been visited by her Department's inspectors in relation to the use of Open General Export Licences; and if she will place details of these inspections in the Library. [20032]
§ Mrs. RocheTwo hundred and eighty one UK exporters have been visited by Export Control Organisation Compliance Offers in relation to the use of Open General Export Licences in the period between 1 April 1995 and 12 November 1997. These statistics were only consistently recorded separately after 1 April 1995.
Disclosure by the Government of the outcome of these visits could reasonably be expected to harm the competitive position of the companies concerned. Therefore this information comes within the category of information "third party's commercial confidences" which is exempt from the commitments to provide information in the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.