UK Publishes Q1 2026 Strategic Export Controls Licensing Statistics

The U.K. ECJU published its quarterly licensing commentary on August 27, 2026, covering the period January–March 2026. Some brief highlights include: 1. ECJU made 2,705 licensing decisions on standard individual export licences (SIELs) in Q1, an 11% increase from the prior quarter, with 96% issued and 4% refused; 2. the refusal rate remained above the long-run average, continuing a trend since Q3 2022 partly attributed to enhanced military end-use controls covering China since May 2022. 3. The total value of SIELs issued rose to £3.53 billion, up from £3.04 billion in Q4 2025, though ECJU cautions that self-declared licence values can overstate actual export activity.