Annex A - Official Documents

The Government is committed to increasing further
the level of transparency and quality of information
it provides to both Parliament and the general
public wherever possible. We regard this process
as on-going and continue to welcome suggestions
for improvements from Parliament, industry and
civil society.
Awareness
The Government has undertaken an extensive
awareness campaign for industry around the UK.
35 countrywide training courses were held during
2005. These comprised Beginners’ Workshops for
those who have just started in the export control
business. Intermediate level seminars, covering a
number of issues including exporting technology,
the different sorts of licences available, company
compliance with export control legislation and the
UK control lists. There have also been courses on
complying with the controls.
ECO staff have also given a number of
presentations over the past twelve months to
individual companies, HM Revenue and Customs,
chambers of commerce and the European
Commission.
The Government has also published, on the ECO
website, a list of Iranian entities of potential WMD
concern. The list is intended to help exporters
judge which exports might potentially be of
concern on end use grounds, based on previous
licensing decisions, and when they should contact
the ECO for advice. The entities included on the
list are mainly based on the last three years'
experience of either invoking the WMD end-use
control or refusing licences under it. Inclusion of an
entity on the list does not necessarily indicate that
an export licence would be refused, nor noninclusion
that there are no end-use concerns.
In 2005 the ECO started working on the
development of two web-based tools to help
exporters find out if their products needed a licence
and, if licensable, whether an open general licence
potentially covered proposed exports. The first of
these tools, "Goods Checker”, was made available
at the end of 2005 and can be accessed at
www.ecoChecker.co.uk/goodsChecker
.
Goods Checker provides a web based search
function across the Consolidated UK Strategic
Export Control List.
The second tool, “OGEL Checker”, was made
available in May 2006 at
www.ecoChecker.co.uk/ogelChecker
.
Users who know the rating of their goods and the
destination country for the proposed export, can
use the tool to find out which Open General Export
Licence(s) may cover the export, provided all the
conditions can be complied with.
Compliance
In 2005 Export Control Compliance Officers
undertook 568 visits to companies and individuals
holding Open Individual and Open General
licences both for exports and trade activity. The
purpose of these visits is to establish whether the
terms and conditions of the licences are being
adhered to. Approximately 76% of these visits
showed the companies to be fully compliant with
the terms of their licences. Of the remaining 24%,
many of the errors found were minor and rectified
by the time the companies were visited again.
1.5 Enforcement
HMRC’s enforcement framework is based on:
� The obligation on exporters to declare to
HMRC whether goods require a licence;
� Targeting checks on the basis of intelligence
and risk;
� Taking action against persons breaching the
controls, including activity based controls;
� Dealing with intelligence and credible
allegations to establish if an offence has been
committed;
� Investigating where there is evidence of a
serious offence; and
� Reporting for prosecution in appropriate
cases.
Section 1
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