Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 18 October 2022 to Question 62964 on Academic Technology Approval Scheme: Oxford East, by when his Department plans to help tackle the delay in processing applications to the Academic Technology Approval Scheme within published timescales.

The UK takes seriously its responsibility towards countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and advanced conventional military technology. The Academic Technology Approval Scheme is a thorough, necessary and proportionate tool to protect UK research from misappropriation and divergence to military programmes of concern. The majority of applications are processed within published timescales. A small percentage of complex cases remain outside target processing times and our teams are working to clear them as soon as possible. The ATAS IT system is being updated before the summer surge next year, which will improve processing rates.