Arms Trade: Export Controls

(asked on 9th October 2026) - View Source
Questioner
Ben Obese-Jecty Portrait
Ben Obese-Jecty
(Conservative - Huntingdon)

Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, a) which five countries have the longest average processing time of export licences for i) military goods and ii) dual use goods by the Export Control Joint Unit each year since 2020 and b) what is the average processing time for each of these countries.

Answered by
Blair McDougall Portrait
Blair McDougall
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
This question was answered on 19th October 2026

Processing times are not published by military goods and dual use goods. The ECJU Annual Reports published in 2022 to 2025 contain data on the aggregated average processing times covering 2020 through to 2024, seen in Table 2.2 and where available, Table 2.3. The reports can be found here:

The vast majority of licences are now processed on the new LITE system, whilst a small minority are still handled on the legacy system, SPIRE. In 2025, 53% of Standard Individual Export Licenses (SIEL) applications finalised in the LITE licensing system were completed within 20 working days, with 91% of SIEL applications completed within 60 working days. 51% of SIEL applications finalised in the SPIRE licensing system were completed within 20 working days, with 72% of SIEL applications completed within 60 working days.

As part of the Department’s Strategic export controls quarterly statistics publication, Table C provides processing times by country. 2026Q1-table-c-initial_processing_times_by_licence_type_and_sub_type_by_end-user_destination.ods

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