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15/05/2025
Database Contains Data Up Until
31/12/2024
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Welcome to the Strategic Export Controls: Reports and Statistics website from the Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU). ECJU is part of the Department for Business and Trade. ECJU brings together operational and policy expertise from the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the Ministry of Defence (MOD).

This website contains data on export licensing decisions which has historically been published as read only in the quarterly and annual reports. You can still look at/download the data in report format by quarter or annum (available via the strategic export controls licencing official statistics at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data), but now you can also choose your own criteria (subject to certain limitations) to create a bespoke report giving you just the information you require.

To help you get started, a basic guide to using this website can be found on the Help screen.

Custom Reporting

As part of its commitment to transparency in Export Controls, the Government has published Annual Reports on export licensing decisions since 1997. From 2004, the Government also published Quarterly Reports to further enhance transparency. Since 2005 these reports have also included decisions on Trade Control licences, and since 2006, information on licences issued under the torture regulation - EC Regulation 1236/2005 until 20 January 2019, when it was repealed and replaced by the codifying Regulation (EU)2019/125 (on trade in certain goods which could be used for capital punishment, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment). More information on the regulation is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/controls-on-torture-goods

However, the Government recognises that published reports do not always meet the needs of the reader. This website has been developed to allow users to create reports based on their own criteria, e.g., specific types of exports to certain destinations, over any period of time (but subject to a minimum period of 30 days).

If you wish to use the additional features available on the website, you need to create an account by clicking the 'Register' link. You do not need to register to view or download the published reports.

If you have any queries, please send an E-Mail to ECJU.statistics@businessandtrade.gov.uk

SPIRE-LITE transition and the associated impact

ECJU is in the process of introducing a new digital system for export licensing, known as 'LITE', which will replace its legacy system, SPIRE. LITE aims to streamline the application process for exporters using improved service design and modern technology to support robust licence decision-making.

As LITE functionality is being released incrementally, the ability to publish data from LITE accurately and effectively is still in development. LITE is currently in a Private Beta phase, with exporters trialling the new service on an invite-only basis, gradually increasing these numbers over time. The vast majority of exporters continue to use the legacy system, whilst a small number of exporters now use LITE, with these exporters submitting a relatively low number of applications - LITE saw an average of around 75 licence application decisions per quarter during 2022, compared to an average of around 4,500 licence application decisions per quarter in SPIRE.

This has enabled ECJU to manually extract the necessary data from LITE for each case individually, validate and quality assure this, and then manually input this into SPIRE to allow this to be blended with SPIRE data to create an overall view of export licensing decisions. As the Strategic Export Controls: Reports and Statistics website is built on the same platform as SPIRE, this process enabled the LITE data to be made available through this service. However, as we progress the development of this new system, with more exporters invited to use LITE, the number of licensing decisions involved means this manual intervention is becoming unsustainable. Case numbers on LITE will continue to increase as more exporters are brought on board and it becomes the dominant system for export licence applications.

As a result, data on export licensing decisions made in LITE will no longer be published on the existing Strategic Export Controls: Reports and Statistics website from 2023 onwards. The following is a summary of the LITE related impact on the Strategic Export Controls: Reports and Statistics website:

  • Data on export licencing decisions made in LITE prior to 2023 (i.e. up to and including 31 December 2022) are included on the Strategic Export Controls: Reports and Statistics website, except for SIEL end-user types and firearm quantities.
  • All data on export licencing decisions made in LITE from 2023 onwards (i.e. from 1 January 2023) are not included on the Strategic Export Controls: Reports and Statistics website.

Once LITE functionality permits, we will retrospectively publish all data on export licencing decisions made in LITE that was omitted during the transition period to ensure there are no overall reductions in transparency.

For further details, including a high-level overview of data on export licencing decisions made in LITE for each quarter, please see the Statement of Administrative Sources made available alongside the strategic export controls licencing official statistics at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/strategic-export-control-statistics-statement-of-administrative-sources

Disclaimer

Please note that the information on this website is as accurate as possible but there may be discrepancies between the bespoke reports available to download here and those historically found on the GOV.UK website. There may be several reasons for this:

  • There may have been data amendments since the 2008 quarterly reports were originally published.
  • There will be instances where an automated production of a report such as those provided on this website is more accurate and also follows set rules (for example when defining mil goods and other goods).
  • The totals displayed for each country should be the same but the way the values are calculated for goods types is different so you should expect anomalies in this part of the data.
  • Case summaries are now ordered alphabetically in all instances so this may also alter the reports that you are looking at.
  • Processing times are given for SIELs and SITCLs combined, whereas previous reports were for SIELs only. Similarly data for OIELs and OITCLs combined is also given.
  • Licencing decisions were made in LITE (see SPIRE-LITE transition and the associated impact above for further details).

Please visit the Help section for the 'Accessibility Statement' relating to this website.

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