The Export Control Organisation (the “ECO”) published a note to exporters regarding export licensing performance. The whole notice is available here.
In summary, the ECO announced that it is dealing with a very significant volume of applications for Standard Individual Export Licences (“SIELs“), resulting in it missing its primary target (please see below). As a result, processing of 70% of applications is at present taking 25 working days instead of the standard 20 working days. The ECO has stated that it is working hard to improve its performance.
The ECO has two aims when processing SIELs:
• a primary target of having 70% of licence applications processed within 20 working days.
• a secondary target of having 99% of licence applications processed within 60 working days.
Both targets were met in 2014.
Suggested Action
The ECO is advising exporters to take the following action:
• make SIEL applications as early as possible, flagging urgent shipping dates within the application. The ECO intends to prioritise urgent cases.
• if any delay in obtaining a licence is likely to result in the missing of a shipping date, exporters should directly contact their licensing officer.
• identify the destinations for which it takes longer to obtain a licence – this information is available in the ECO’s export licensing performance data, which is published regularly.
• confirm whether the export(s) in question may be alternatively covered by an Open General Licence, which are easy to register for and use.
