Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to tackle delays in processing applications for the Academic Technology Approval Scheme.

So far in 2022 we have received over 49,000 ATAS applications, of which only 824 remain beyond their target processing time. In order to process these numbers, staffing has been increased and a significant IT upgrade is underway.

ATAS continues to be an essential tool to prevent sensitive UK technology from reaching military programmes of concern.