HC Deb 17 January 2001 vol 361 c237W
Mr. Lidington

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what issues are involved in the decision on whether to grant export licence application 16047 from Aylesbury Automation; and to which other Government Departments he has circulated this export licence. [145333]

Dr. Howells

[holding answer 15 January 2001]: Licences to export arms and other goods whose export is controlled for strategic reasons are listed by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry acting through DTI's Export Control Organisation (ECO). All relevant individual licence applications are circulated by the DTI to other Government Departments with an interest as determined by those Departments in line with their policy responsibilities. Licence application 16047 was circulated to FCO and MOD.

All applications, including ELA 16407, for a licence to export arms and other goods on the Military List (Part III of Schedule 1 to the Export of Goods (Control) Order 1994) are considered against the consolidated EU and national arms export licensing criteria, as announced by my hon. Friend the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. Hain), on 26 October 2000, Official Report, column 199–203W.

Mr. Lidington

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many export licence applications were received by the Export Control Organisation in August 2000; how many of those applications are still awaiting a decision; and if he will make a statement. [145331]

Dr. Howells

[holding answer 15 January 2001]: In August 2000, the Export Control Organisation (ECO) received 927 applications for a Standard Individual Export Licence (SIEL). On 11 January 2001,86 of these applications were awaiting a decision.

The ECO also received 35 applications for an Open Individual Export Licence (OIEL) in August 2000. On 11 January, 15 of these applications were awaiting a decision. It is to be expected that these cases will take longer to process than SIELs because of the potentially wide variation in the goods and country coverage of OIELs.