Memorandum from HM Revenue and Customs
I am writing in response to your e-mail [...]
of 20 September 2007, in which you enquired into the citizenship
of a named individual, and asked whether or not that individual
would require an export licence to sell and/or promote electro
shock weapons.
Section 3(2) of the Trade in Goods (Control)
Order 2003 states that:
"(2) Subject to the provisions of this
Order, no United Kingdom person shall directly or indirectly—
(b) agree to supply or deliver; or
(c) do any act calculated to promote the
supply or delivery of,
any restricted goods, where that person knows
or has reason to believe that his action or actions will, or may,
result in the removal of those goods from one third country to
another third country"
For the purposes of this Order, restricted goods
are defined as those listed in paragraph (c) or (g) of PL5001
in Schedule 1 of the Export of Goods, Transfer of Technology and
Provision of Technical Assistance (Control) Order 2003. Paragraph
(g) includes:
"Portable devices designed or modified for
the purpose of riot control or self-protection by the administration
of an electric shock (eg, electric-shock batons, electric-shock
shields, stun-guns and electric-shock dart-guns (tasers)) and
components therefor specially designed or modified for such a
purpose."
As such, any UK person undertaking any act calculated
to promote the supply or delivery of electro shock weapons between
two third countries requires a trade license, wherever in the
world they may be operating. The particular licence required will
depend on the destination country in each case.
The Committee will be aware that section 18(1)
of the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005 prohibits
HMRC from disclosing information held in connection with its functions
except in the circumstances set out within section 18(2). The
information you request is, if held by HMRC, held in connection
with our functions and is, therefore, subject to the general prohibition
against disclosure in section 18. It inevitably relates to persons
whose identity is specified in the information, as you name a
specific individual and company within your request.
HMRC takes its duty of confidentiality very
seriously, so much so that when they take up employment our officers
have to sign an undertaking to ensure they adhere to it and face
criminal prosecution which may result in imprisonment if they
breach it. The fact that the information may already be in the
public domain does not set aside our duty of confidentiality.
However, I can assure the Committee that we
will investigate any credible evidence of a breach of export and/or
trade controls.
I understand that BERR will respond to your
additional enquiry regarding export licenses in due course.
November 2007
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