HC Deb 09 December 1998 vol 322 cc200-1W
Mrs. Gillan

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what percentage of applications for export licences were processed by his Department within 20 days for the period 13 July to date. [61929]

Mrs. Roche

The Export Control Organisation (ECO) of DTI measures export licence processing performance against two aimsto provide a substantive response to an application within 20 working days of receipt for applications that need to be circulated to other Government Departments according to their policy requirements ("circulated cases") to provide such a response within 10 working days of receipt of applications that are dealt with by the DTI itself ("non-circulated cases").

In each case, full documentation in support of the application must be provided by the applicant at the outset for these targets to apply.

ECO management data on the processing of licence applications is compiled on the basis of four-week periods. The accumulated data for the periods beginning 27 June 1998 to 13 November 1998 showed that to the nearest percentage point 45 per cent. of circulated cases were finalised within 20 working days and 82 per cent. of non-circulated cases were finalised within 10 working days.

This information was taken from ECO's management data, which are compiled to monitor processing of Standard Individual Export Licences. The performance measures do not apply to applications for Open Individual Export Licences (due to wide variations between goods and country coverage of such licences), to licences covering Iran or to exports which are subject to control solely because of United Nations Sanctions.

Mrs. Gillan

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many export licence applications were refused by the Export Control Organisation during each of the four week periods used by his Department from 29 May to date. [61931]

Mrs. Roche

The Export Control Organisation's computer databases have been interrogated and the numbers of applications for Standard Individual Export Licences refused in full for each period are as follows:

Period Standard individual export licenses
30 May 1998–26 June 1998 9
27 June 1998–24 July 1998 4
25 July 1998–21 August 1998 10
22 August 1998–18 September 1998 10
19 September 1998–16 October 1998 10
17 October 1998–13 November 1998 9

No Open Individual Export Licences were refused in full during the period.

This information should be considered in the 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.

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