Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many export licence applications related to Ukraine are still being assessed (a) three months and (b) six months after submission.

The processing of all export licence applications to Ukraine is being prioritised by ECJU. Within that process, applications for the export of equipment organised between the UK Government and the government of Ukraine through Ministry of Defence procurement mechanisms are given the highest priority.

As with all export licence applications, assessments are made on a case-by-case basis according to the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria. Assessments for Ukraine, given the situation within the country and the nature of the goods often being exported, mean these cases are some of the most complex for ECJU to process. Therefore, some can take longer to process than our public targets (to conclude 70% of standard individual export licence (SIEL) applications within 20 working days and 99% within 60 working days).

The volume of live applications changes daily, but the Government release statistics on export licensing decisions and processing times regularly and these can be broken down by end destination. The most recent statistics cover the period April to June 2024 and were published on 12 December. In that period, 36 (72%) SIELs for Ukraine were responded to within 20 working days and 45 (90%) were responded to within 60 working days.