Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what the average length of wait was to receive the result of an application for a Standard Individual Export Licence using the SPIRE system between January to July 2024.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Between 1 January and 30 June 2024, the median processing time for Standard Individual Export Licence (SIEL) applications submitted on SPIRE and processed to first outcome was 16 working days.
The Export Control Joint Unit’s (ECJU) current performance targets are to complete 70% of applications for SIELs within 20 working days, and 99% within 60 working days.
The Export Control Joint Unit publish comprehensive statistics every quarter about export licence applications, which includes our median processing times. The most recent publication covers the quarter up to June 2024. This data is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what the average length of wait has been to receive the result of an application for a Standard Individual Export Licence using the new LITE system since it was launched.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
LITE is being introduced gradually as we design, build and iteratively improve the system. It was initially introduced in 2021 for a small number of exporters and this gradual increase in cases continued through 2022. The then Government concluded a total of 384 cases in LITE over 2021 and 2022 and the median processing time was 38 days.
In 2023, the then Government paused the reporting of LITE processing times whilst new functionality was developed. The Government is planning to return to publishing LITE data during 2025 once this functionality is implemented.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 31 October 2024 to Question 9607 on DBT: Buildings, how many civil servants are assigned to work in his Department's headquarters in London; and how many individual desks are available in that office.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
I refer the (Rt.) Hon. Member to my response to question 9606, tabled on 16th October 2024.
Please see below a summary of the number of staff assigned by each location and the number of desks per location as of 30th September 2024:
DBT Hub | Headcount | Desk Numbers |
Belfast | 63 | 16 |
Birmingham | 403 | 216 |
Cardiff | 145 | 66 |
Darlington | 248 | 100 |
Edinburgh | 92 | 56 |
Greater Manchester | 171 | 65 |
London | 4010 | 1500 |
*Regional Offices | 194 | 141 |
Total | 5326 | 2160 |
*We have several offices across the country that are listed under Regional Offices, it would exceed the word count if these were to be listed in totality.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 31 October 2024 to Question 9607 on DBT: Buildings, how many individual desks were occupied in his Department’s headquarters in the most recent four weeks for which figures are available.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Heads of Department have agreed that 60% minimum office attendance for most staff continues to be the best balance of working for the Civil Service.
Office occupancy data for the period July - September has been published, with further publications to now happen on a quarterly basis. The data is published here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-hq-occupancy-data
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many civil servants are assigned to work in each of his Department's offices; and how many desks are available in each office.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Please see below a summary of the number of staff assigned by each location and the number of desks per location as of 30th September 2024:
DBT Hub | Headcount | Desk Numbers |
Belfast | 63 | 16 |
Birmingham | 403 | 216 |
Cardiff | 145 | 66 |
Darlington | 248 | 100 |
Edinburgh | 92 | 56 |
Greater Manchester | 171 | 65 |
London | 4010 | 1500 |
*Regional Offices | 194 | 141 |
Total | 5326 | 2160 |
*We have several offices across the country that are listed under Regional Offices, it would exceed the word count if these were to be listed in totality.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many and what proportion of desks were occupied in each of his Department’s offices in the most recent four weeks for which figures are available; and how many staff attended each office in person in the same period.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Heads of Department have agreed that 60% minimum office attendance for most staff continues to be the best balance of working for the Civil Service. Office occupancy data for the period July - September has been published today, with further publications to now happen on a quarterly basis. The data is published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-hq-occupancy-data
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much was spent on (a) new furniture and fittings and (b) other refurbishment of Ministerial offices in his Department since the dissolution of the last Parliament; and on what items this was spent.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Since the dissolution of the last Parliament, the Department for Business and Trade has not spent any money on:
a) new furniture or fittings for Minister’s offices or
b) other refurbishment of Ministerial offices