Dual-Use Goods: Which Export Licence You Need

Dual-use controls catch businesses with no defence connection at all, because the category is defined by what an item can do rather than by what the buyer intends. The two things most often got wrong are which legislation applies in Great Britain, and whether an export to the EU needs a licence at all.

What are dual-use goods?

Dual-use items are goods, software and technology with both civil and military uses. They sit inside a wider category of controlled goods that also covers military items, firearms, items usable for torture or capital punishment, and goods subject to trade sanctions.

The category is defined by capability rather than by intent. A machine tool, a thermal camera, an encryption library or a carbon-fibre composite can all be controlled because of what they are capable of, regardless of what the buyer plans to do with them. That is why businesses with no defence connection routinely find themselves inside the regime.

The Export Control Joint Unit, part of the Department for Business and Trade, is responsible for export control and licensing of these items. It publishes the consolidated list against which goods are assessed, and it is the body that grants or refuses a licence.

Which legislation applies in Great Britain?

Great Britain controls dual-use exports under assimilated Regulation 428/2009. This matters because it is widely misstated: the EU replaced 428/2009 with Regulation 2021/821, and Great Britain did not follow.

Northern Ireland is different again. EU legislation governs dual-use exports there under the Windsor Framework, although there are no licensing requirements to move dual-use items from Northern Ireland to Great Britain.

If you are reading guidance that cites 2021/821 for a Great Britain export, it is either written for an EU audience or out of date. The Export Control Order 2008 legislation currently in force came into effect on 20 May 2025, and the UK Strategic Export Control List was last updated on 16 December 2025 — both worth checking against, because control entries move.

Do you need a licence to export dual-use items to the EU?

Yes. An export licence issued by the UK is required to export dual-use items from Great Britain to the EU or the Channel Islands. Businesses that assume EU destinations are unlicensed because they once were have the most expensive version of this misunderstanding.

ECJU has, however, published an open general export licence for exports of dual-use items to EU member states from Great Britain, and that licence also covers the Channel Islands. It removes the need for Great Britain exporters to apply for individual licences on those routes.

An open general licence is not a free pass. You register to use it, you have to meet its conditions and exclusions, and you have to keep records. What it removes is the per-shipment application, not the obligation — and a consignment moving outside the licence's terms is an unlicensed export regardless of the registration.

Read the exclusions before relying on it. An open general licence typically excludes particular goods, particular end-uses and particular destinations, and a consignment that falls into any exclusion needs an individual licence instead. Discovering that at the point of shipping is the expensive version.

What are the different licence types?

For military items exported from Great Britain to the EU, open individual export licences are no longer restricted to 3 years; from Northern Ireland to the EU they continue to be. For firearms, dealer-to-dealer OIELs are not valid for movements from Great Britain to the EU, so dealers must apply for standard individual licences under a simplified process.

Where the destination is covered by an arms embargo, the relevant sanctions regulations under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 apply on top of the licensing position. An embargo is not something a licence overrides.

How do you find out whether your goods are controlled?

You assess them against the consolidated list of strategic military and dual-use items that require export authorisation. The assessment is the exporter's responsibility and it is a technical exercise against control entries rather than a judgement about your customer.

1. Step 1 — identify the technical specification of the item, including software and technology, not just the hardware.
2. Step 2 — check it against the control entries on the current list, which was last revised in December 2025.
3. Step 3 — where an entry matches, establish which licence covers the route and the consignee.
4. Step 4 — register for or apply for that licence before the goods are committed to a vehicle.
5. Step 5 — note the licence reference on the export declaration and keep the records the licence requires.

Step 2 is the one that needs a technical reading rather than a commercial one. Control entries turn on parameters — accuracy, frequency, temperature, tolerance — and a product that was uncontrolled last year can be caught by a revised entry without changing at all.

What happens if a controlled item ships without a licence?

It is an unlicensed export, and the exposure sits with the exporter. Export control is one of the areas where the offence does not depend on whether the goods reached a bad end — shipping a controlled item without the authorisation is the breach in itself.

Practically, two things tend to surface it. The export declaration is where a licence reference is expected and its absence is visible, and a carrier or freight forwarder asked to move something with an obvious controlled specification will often query it. Neither is a substitute for the exporter's own assessment.

Because the goods, the software and the technology are all in scope, an export can also happen without anything physically moving. Transferring controlled technology to a person outside the UK — by email, by remote access, in a design review — can constitute an export. That is the limb businesses with no logistics footprint miss entirely.

Does a carrier need its own export licence?

No. The licence belongs to the exporter, and a carrier moving a licensed consignment is not required to hold one of its own. What a carrier does need is confirmation that the licence exists and that the consignment falls within it — 2 facts, both of which you hold and we do not.

The Export Control Joint Unit grants licences to exporters, not to hauliers. There is no carrier accreditation in this regime, which means anyone presenting one as a qualification to move controlled goods is describing something that does not exist.

We are not an export control adviser and cannot classify your goods against the control list. That assessment has to come from you or from a specialist — the technical parameters are yours, and nobody outside your business is in a position to read them against a control entry.

What we can do is move the consignment and keep the documents with it. See customs clearance coordination for how that works alongside an agent you appoint, customs declaration for where the licence reference goes, and certificate of origin for the origin document that often travels on the same export.

How does this interact with sanctions and embargoes?

Sanctions sit on top of export control rather than inside it. Where a destination is covered by an arms embargo or by trade sanctions, the relevant regulations under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 apply alongside the licensing position, and a licence does not override an embargo.

That means a two-stage check rather than one. First, is the item controlled and what licence covers the route? Second, is the destination, the consignee or any party in the chain the subject of sanctions? A perfectly licensed item to a sanctioned entity is still a breach, and the second check is the one that moves fastest — designations change without any change to the control list.

Goods subject to trade sanctions are themselves listed as a category of controlled goods alongside military items, dual-use items, firearms and items usable for torture or capital punishment. Treating the 5 categories as one checklist rather than as separate regimes is the practical approach.

What should you have ready before a controlled export moves?

Four items, and none of them can be assembled at the loading bay.

The licence or licence registration covering the route and the consignee. The technical assessment showing which control entry was considered and why the conclusion was reached — because a decision with no written reasoning is indistinguishable from no decision. The export declaration with the licence reference on it. And the record-keeping the licence itself specifies, which for an open general licence is a condition of use rather than an administrative nicety.

If the movement also involves Northern Ireland, remember that the legislative position changes at the Irish Sea: EU rules govern dual-use exports from Northern Ireland, and the Windsor Framework is what determines the customs treatment of the movement itself. For an ATA Carnet movement — equipment going out and coming back — the export control position still applies even though the goods are not being sold. Tell us the route and the licence reference and we will handle the movement.