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<p>Export licence applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis against announced
policies and the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria (SELC). Given the high volume
of decisions taken every week, the vast majority of licensing applications are decided
upon by officials within the Export Control Joint Unit acting on behalf of the Secretary
of State for Business and Trade, using the framework provided by the SELC. These decisions
are taken in consultation with officials from other government departments including
the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office and the Ministry of Defence.</p><p>In
practice a very small proportion of export licensing decisions are escalated to Ministers.
For example, this happens when a decision is finely balanced or when Ministers have
asked for certain types of cases to be referred to them for decision. As with any
part of Government, ECJU officials would consult Ministers from the three Departments
in the normal course of their work, including on some export control applications,
as and when necessary. We do not maintain a central record of how many times this
has happened in the last 14 years.</p><p>Ministers are always consulted on any decisions
related to revoking or suspending licences. We report on the volume of revoked and
suspended licences in our Quarterly Statistics and Annual Report. These can be accessed
here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data</p>
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