Asked by: Joanna Cherry (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment he has made of the impact of (a) trade rules implemented following the UK's departure from the EU and (b) rules on sending charitable donations of goods to EU countries on the number of shipments of humanitarian aid from the UK to EU countries, such as Greece and Poland.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
British goods exports to the EU were up 4.1% in 2021 on the previous year, whilst British goods imports from the EU were down 4.5% in the same period.
Although customs processes must still be followed, humanitarian goods are subject to customs duty relief. Businesses and charities can contact the Export Support Service for help relating to the Ukraine crisis.
Asked by: Joanna Cherry (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what the Government's policy is on granting export licences for non-military sonar equipment to (a) China and (b) a third country where the purchaser is a Chinese registered firm.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
The Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria, last updated in a Written Ministerial Statement on 25th March 2014, sets out the policy framework for assessing all export licence applications.
Asked by: Joanna Cherry (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what estimate she has made of the longest number of days her Department has taken to make an export licence decision from the date of the initial request to the date of the first decision being communicated to the applicant in each quarter of (a) 2018, (b) 2019 and (c) 2020.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
HM Government publishes Official Statistics on export licences granted, refused and revoked to all destinations on GOV.UK, on a quarterly and annual basis. These reports contain detailed information including the overall value, type (e.g. Military, Other) and a summary of the items covered by these licences.
This information is available at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data. The most recent publication was on 13th October 2020, covering the period 1st April – 30th June 2020.
Internal records held indicate, in each quarter between Q1 2018 and Q2 2020, the longest an application has taken to process a Standard Individual Export Licence (SIEL) by HM Government, is as follows:
Period | Longest an application has taken, in working days |
Q1 2018 | 901 |
Q2 2018 | 887 |
Q3 2018 | 1018 |
Q4 2018 | 424 |
Q1 2019 | 576 |
Q2 2019 | 730 |
Q3 2019 | 431 |
Q4 2019 | 573 |
Q1 2020 | 488 |
Q2 2020 | 549 |
Asked by: Joanna Cherry (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what proportion of applications for export licences have been declined where the item is being exported to (a) China and (b) a third country where the purchaser is a Chinese registered firm or has been deemed to have links with China, in each quarter of (i) 2018, (ii) 2019 and (iii) 2020.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
HM Government publishes Official Statistics on export licences granted, refused and revoked to all destinations on GOV.UK, on a quarterly and annual basis.
These reports contain detailed information including the overall value, type (e.g. Military, Other) and a summary of the items covered by these licences. This information is available at: gov.uk/government/collections/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data
However, the information requested by the Hon. Lady can only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Joanna Cherry (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what estimate she has made of the average number of days her Department has taken to make export licence decisions from the date of the initial request to the date of the first decision being communicated to the applicant in each quarter of (a) 2018, (b) 2019 and (c) 2020.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
HM Government publishes Official Statistics on export licences granted, refused and revoked to all destinations on GOV.UK, on a quarterly and annual basis.
These reports contain detailed information including the overall value, type (e.g. Military, Other) and a summary of the items covered by these licences. This information is available at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data
The most recent publication was on 13th October 2020, covering the period 1st April to 30th June 2020. For Standard Individual Export Licence (SIEL) applications, the data is reproduced below.
Period | Median processing times (days) |
Q1 2018 | 11 |
Q2 2018 | 11 |
Q3 2018 | 10 |
Q4 2018 | 12 |
Q1 2019 | 11 |
Q2 2019 | 10 |
Q3 2019 | 10 |
Q4 2019 | 15 |
Q1 2020 | 15 |
Q2 2020 | 13 |