Thank your for your letter of 12 November 1998 regarding Departmental performance against targets for responding to export licence applications. Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding. The target to which MoD works is for applications other than those for exports to Angola, Iran, Iraq and Libya, is that they should be processed and returned to the DTI within 10 days of receipt. The MOD figures for the previous 12 months are detailed below.

Month	Licences Received*	Number Cleared in 10 Working days	%
November 1997	689	514	75
December 1997	536	338	63
January 1998	708	602	85
February 1998	874	599	69
March 1998	810	601	74
April 1998	681	536	79
May 1998	692	586	85
June 1998	631	417	66
July 1998	872	675	77
August 1998	694	443	64
September 1998	789	713	90
October 1998	716	667	93
Average = 77 per cent

* Excludes Open Individual Export Licences and those for export to Angola, Iran, Iraq and Libya.

1 December 1998