UK Making Progress on New Export Licensing System, Official Says

LONDON -- The U.K. is on track to fully deploy the country’s new digital export licensing system in March 2025, said Rosemary Pratt, director of the U.K.’s Export Control Joint Unit. Pratt said the new system, which has faced several delays, has been a “very long running, challenging project,” but it’s now entering the “final phase” and will make export licensing more efficient for U.K. companies.

“This is a very, very big deal,” Pratt said during a defense industry conference hosted by SAE Media last week. “This is an opportunity to modernize, to make this better for exporters, to make this better for our staff who are using the system and just help us to be more efficient, professional, customer-focused.”

Licensing for International Trade & Enterprise (LITE), which will replace the U.K.’s current export licensing system in the Shared Primary Information Resource Environment (SPIRE) (see 2002190038 and 2301130009), has been made available to some exporters under a trial phase, Pratt said. “We've steadily increased the number of applications, exporters using LITE, and we will continue to do that.”

She called the new system “more streamlined” and “much more intuitive” than SPIRE but said the agency has faced issues operating two export control systems at once. “It's great because we're making progress,” Pratt said, “but it gets more and more complicated as you get to the finish line” and as the agency juggles more exporters using LITE as well as companies still working with SPIRE.