The status of laboratory spectroscopic data for exoplanet characterisation missions such as EChO is reviewed. For many molecules (eg H 2 O, CO, CO 2 , H + 3 , O 2 , O 3 ) the data are already available. For the other species work is actively in progress constructing this data. Much of the is work is being undertaken by ExoMol project (www.exomol.com). This information can be used to construct a mission-specific spectroscopic database.