Licensing statistics quality and methodology information
How Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU) source, process and quality check data for the creation of the strategic export controls licensing statistics.
Documents
Details
This guidance sets out the methodology Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU) uses for data collection and compilation of its strategic export controls statistics.
Methodology and quality control procedures follow the UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice for Statistics.
The guidance covers:
- the data sources used
- collection methodology
- classification and definitions
- data quality standards
Updates to this page
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15 May 2025 Updated guidance to include up to date details on the SPIRE-LITE transition.
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12 December 2024 Updated guidance to include up to date details on the SPIRE-LITE transition.
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13 June 2024 Updated guidance to include up to date details on the SPIRE-LITE transition.
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16 January 2024 Updated guidance to include up to date details on the SPIRE-LITE transition.
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30 August 2023 Updated guidance to include up to date details on the SPIRE-LITE transition.
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21 November 2022 Removed glossary section as per audit instructions.
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7 October 2022 Updated to improve clarity, fix broken links and improve the example of calculating processing times.
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11 February 2022 Updated quality and methodology information following changes to licensing systems.
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16 September 2021 Update of content and conversion into HTML from pdf.
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21 July 2015 First published.
Update history
2026-01-29 09:30
Updated guidance to include up to date details on the SPIRE-LITE transition.
2025-11-13 09:30
Updated guidance to include up to date details on the SPIRE-LITE transition. ‘Processing statistics’ section expanded to cover the differences between the methodology used to calculate the initial processing time in SPIRE and LITE.
2025-05-15 09:30
Updated guidance to include up to date details on the SPIRE-LITE transition.
2024-12-12 09:30
Updated guidance to include up to date details on the SPIRE-LITE transition.
2024-06-13 09:30
Updated guidance to include up to date details on the SPIRE-LITE transition.
2024-01-16 09:30
Updated guidance to include up to date details on the SPIRE-LITE transition.
2023-08-30 09:30
Updated guidance to include up to date details on the SPIRE-LITE transition.
2022-11-21 14:51
Removed glossary section as per audit instructions.
2022-10-07 12:01
Updated to improve clarity, fix broken links and improve the example of calculating processing times.