§ Mr. BluntTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what is her estimate of the value of defence export licence applications withdrawn since 1 May 1997 after contracts were cancelled by customers due to delay in licence proceedings. [35389]
§ Mrs. RocheBetween 2 May 1997 and 6 March 1998, 554 applications for Standard Individual Export Licences and 21 applications for Open Individual Export Licences were withdrawn by the applicants. There is no requirement that the applicant should give a reason for withdrawing an application and it is therefore not possible to give an estimate as requested.
§ Mr. FaberTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what is the total number of export licence applications processed by the Export Control Organisation in each of the four-week periods used by her Department from 5 April 1997 to that commencing on 7 February 1998, broken down into(a) those circulated to other Government departments and (b) those not circulated. [36712]
§ Mrs. RocheThe information is as follows:
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period Applications circulated to other Departments according to their policy requirements and completed during the period Applications not circulated to other Departments and completed during the Period 5/4/97–2/5/97 767 191 3/5/97–30/5/97 1,019 425 31/5/97–27/6/97 531 191 28/6/97–25/7/97 677 174 26/7/97–22/8/97 798 131 23/8/97–19/9/97 898 244 20/9/97–17/10/97 692 142 18/10/97–14/11/97 794 184
period Applications circulated to other Departments according to their policy requirements and completed during the period Applications not circulated to other Departments and completed during the Period 15/11/97–12/12/97 883 143 13/12/97–9/1/98 662 62 10/1/98–6/2/98 818 137 7/2/98–6/3/98 776 163 This information was taken from the Export Control Organisation's management data, which are compiled in order to monitor performance at processing applications for Standard Individual Export Licences. The performance measures do not apply to applications for Open Individual Export Licences (due to the very wide variations between goods and country coverage of such licences) or licences for exports which are subject to control solely because of United Nations sanctions.
§ Mr. FaberTo ask the President of the Board of Trade how many export licence applications were refused by the Export Control Organisation during each of the four-week periods used by her Department from 5 April 1997 to that commencing on 7 February 1998. [36599]
§ Mrs. RocheThe Export Control Organisation's computer databases have been interrogated and the numbers of applications for Standard Individual Export Licences and Open Individual Export Licences refused in full in each period are as follows:
Applications for individual export licences refused in each 4-week period Period Standard individual export licences Open individual export licences 5/4/97–2/5/97 8 0 3/5/97–30/5/97 4 0 31/5/97–27/6/97 6 1 28/6/97–25/7/97 2 1 26/7/97–22/8/97 7 0 23/8/97–19/9/97 4 0 20/9/97–17/10/97 13 0 18/10/97–14/11/97 4 0 15/11/97–12/12/97 3 1 13/12/97–9/1/98 11 0 10/1/98–6/2/98 11 0 7/2/98–6/3/98 5 0 This information should be considered in light of my answer to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint) on 30 October 1997, Official Report, columns 870–71.
§ Mr. FaberTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what percentage of applications for export licences were processed by the Export Control Organisation in accordance with their targets as to time in the four week periods beginning(a) 3 May 1997 and (b) 7 February 1998. [36497]
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§ Mrs. RocheThe Export Control Organisation's management data on processing applications for export licences for these periods, to the nearest percentage point, are as follows.
percentage 3 May 1997 to 30 May 1997 7 February 1998 to 6 March 1998 Applications circulated to other Departments according to their policy requirements and completed within 20 working days 48 56 Applications not circulated to other Departments and completed in 10 working days 41 76