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Written question asked by Iqbal Mohamed (Independent (affiliation)) on Friday, 10 April 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 14 April 2026. It was answered by Chris Bryant (Labour) on Monday, 20 April 2026 on behalf of the Department for Business and Trade.

Unmanned Air Systems: Export Controls

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what information his Department holds on the number of companies that have exported drone engines to military customers in Israel without requiring an export license.

Answer

The requirement for an export licence is set out in the Export Control Order 2008, Schedule 2 of which covers Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and parts thereof (under ML10). Export licence applications for all controlled goods, including UAV components specially designed or modified for military use, are rigorously assessed on a case-by-case basis against strict assessment criteria, the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria.

Where licence applications include items that are not covered by the 2008 Order, exporters can be informed that no licence is required. Beyond such cases, by definition, the Department does not hold information on the export of items that fall outside of export controls. For goods export data, you should refer to HMRC, who publish UK trade in goods statistics by partner country and product which can be found on www.uktradeinfo.com.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
126486
Session
2024-26
Grouped for answer
Yes
Subjects
Engines Export controls Israel Unmanned air systems
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk