§ Mr. KeyTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what initiatives the Export Control Office is taking to reduce the processing time of licence applications. [17427]
§ Nigel Griffiths[holding answer 27 November 2001]: The Government recognise that the system for processing export licence applications requires continuous improvement if we are to deliver a more efficient and effective system for export licensing which is accountable, transparent and customer focused. I have introduced "time-lines" to track cases. The 1046W Export Control Organisation (ECO) has taken a number of initiatives to reduce the time taken to process individual export licence applications. These include:
building productive customer relationships, including setting up a joint CBI/ECO working group to work with exporters to address issues of concern, including delays in processing export licence applications;enhancing IT systems to ensure they deliver further business process improvements. It is planned that this will lead to, amongst other things, standard individual export licence applications being accepted over the internet next year;establishing more effective partnerships with other Government Departments. Departments involved in the licensing process have agreed in principle to a Service Level Agreement, which we hope to finalise shortly. This will ensure that Departments work better together and focus more sharply on outputs; andestablishing new structures which allow us to continually review and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the decision making process. There are regular meetings between officials in all Departments involved in the export licensing process to identify ways of improving the export licensing system, as well as to discuss particular licence applications.