Memorandum from Reed Exhibitions
INQUIRY: REVIEW OF EXPORT CONTROL LEGISLATION
1. Reed Exhibitions Ltd organises several
aerospace and defence exhibitions both in the UK and overseas.
That therefore is the company's main interest in this inquiry,
while noting that the issue of trade shows does not appear specifically
to have been addressed in the Annual Report 2006.
2. There is little to add to the evidence
offered for the previous review of the new legislation but this
update may be helpful. Close liaison has been maintained with
the Ministry of Defence and the Department of Business Enterprise
and Regulatory Reform to ensure compliance with the relevant Export
Controls. Appropriate Trade Control licences are in place, mindful,
in particular, of the impact of the more recently introduced Controls
on British citizens operating extra-territorially.
3. Of the Reed aerospace, defence and security
events held in the UK, the most significant is DSEi. The others
are Helitech—a helicopter exhibition aimed principally at
the commercial operator, ITEC—which covers military training
and simulation, and a recently relaunched exhibition, ISNR (formally
APTS), which serves the security sector. Outside the UK other
defence events run in the last year have been IDEX in Abu Dhabi,
LAAD in Brazil and TADTE in Taipei. Since British citizens have
been involved in promoting and organising these latter three exhibitions,
they too, have been included within Reed's Trade Control Licence.
4. DSEi is a biennial international defence
exhibition last held in September 2007 at ExCeL, in London's Docklands.
1352 exhibitors were present from 37 different nations, 27 of
which had National Pavilions. 85 Official Defence Delegations
from 56 countries attended, as guests of HMG. The event attracted
some 25,000 international attendees.
5. As before in 2005, Reed Exhibitions used
the following means to communicate the new legislation to all
exhibiting companies and visitors:
— An explanation of how the legislation
may affect individuals and companies was written into a pdf file
with links to the relevant sections on the DBERR website. The
same information was shown on the DSEi website.
— Each company exhibiting at DSEi
07 was required to sign a statement of compliance with UK law
and UK's international undertakings, EU/UN law and EU/UN international
undertakings. An additional paragraph was added to the 2007 exhibitor
contract, referring specifically to the UK Export Control Act
2002.
— An explanation of the new legislation
and its impact on exhibiting companies was included in the exhibitor
brochure.
6. During DSEI 07 two potential breaches
of the law came to Reed's attention. These involved one British
company and one Chinese. Neither had prohibited material on display
but both had promotional material on their stands which included
Restricted Goods. The appropriate authorities were informed and
the two offending exhibitors' stands were closed down. It should
be recorded that, in monitoring and ensuring compliance, cooperation
on site with members of HMRC and the Metropolitan Police, with
external advice from the ECO, was extremely good.
SUMMARY OF
IMPACT
7. The main impact of the Act on Reed, as
an organiser of defence exhibitions, has been the time and effort
required to understand the new legislation, to interpret, translate
and then communicate it to exhibitors and visitors, and to handle
the associated enquiries, particularly from overseas companies.
8. The most significant problem in implementing
compliance measures has been at events organised by Reed overseas
where local regulations differ. This is best explained by an example.
At IDEX, held in Abu Dhabi in February 2007, it proved extremely
difficult to explain to a local company why they could not display
Tasers on their stand. Tasers are not illegal in the UAE and are
issued to their security forces. It was also noted by the owner,
a prominent Sheikh, that they are in use by British police forces.
Such anomalies are not easily comprehended by international exhibitors
and may tend to discourage them from attending overseas events
organised or promoted by British companies.
December 2007
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