Notice

NTE 2020/18: OGELs and MOD authorisation letters

Published 7 December 2020

© Crown copyright 2020

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/notice-to-exporters-202018-ogels-and-mod-authorisation-letters/nte-202018-ogels-and-mod-authorisation-letters

Background

You may be experiencing delays in approval from MOD to enable use of 3 specific open general export licences. This is caused because applicants have not supplied the correct MOD Project Team contact details.

What you need to know

The 3 types of open general export licence that require UK exporters to obtain an approval letter from the MOD. These are:

  • UK Government Defence Contracts, Military Goods
  • Collaborative Project Typhoon and Military Goods
  • Collaborative Project A400M

Before these OGELs can be used, exporters must obtain an authorisation letter from the MOD team in the Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU MOD). ECJU MOD will check that the exporter holds a defence contract with the relevant MOD Project Team (PT) before issuing a letter approving the use of the OGEL. You cannot use the OGEL without this letter.

The ECJU MOD team will not know the contact in the relevant MOD PT, due to the number of projects. Exporters, however, should hold current contact information. We need this to confirm that an exporter has a current contract with MOD.

Action to take

The process below to request an authorisation letter is straight forward and applies to both first time and renewal requests. Please note that for a first time request we advise you to apply for an authorisation letter immediately after the contract is awarded. For renewal requests you should apply at least one month in advance of your existing authorisation letter expiry date.

  1. Requests should be sent by email to ECJU-MODTeam@mod.gov.uk. Do not send requests to any other address.

  2. The request must contain the following information:

  • the title of the OGEL you would like to use
  • the OGEL reference number
  • your full contact details including a telephone number
  • full contact details of the PT which has awarded the contract. A current named contact, telephone number and e-mail address must be included
  • the MOD contract name/reference number and the expiry date of the contract

Without this information ECJU MOD will be unable to process the request which will be returned to the requester to provide the missing information. This will lead to a delay in the exporter being able to use the OGEL.

If you are making the request on behalf of others in your organisation and do not know the current contact details of the PT, it is highly likely that your finance, commercial or contract functions will have the information.

When the required information is provided, a named contact in ECJU MOD will acknowledge receipt and process the request. We aim to process most requests within 10 working days. Please allow for this time to elapse before you chase your application.

For further information and assistance contact ECJU-MODTeam@mod.gov.uk

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