Export controls audits – what evidence is required?
Question
How do we provide evidence that we have done due diligence checks and found no controls in place for audit purposes?
(This question was asked at one of our recent webinars on Export Controls. You can listen to this webinar on our recent webinars page at http://opentoexport.com/info/webinars/)
Answer
If you have an Internal Compliance Programme (ICP – see https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/341998/10-668-codepractice-compliance.pdf for the ECO Compliance Code of Practice) you should have established procedures that you will follow when classifying goods. If necessary you should show the logic used when classifying items and keep this as a record for your files. As an example, the classification of an infra red sensor that I was recently involved with concluded that No Licence was required. This was based on an exception Note in Category 6 and was not obvious when looking at the device specification and the Control List. For this item, a file note was prepared showing how the conclusion of NLR was reached.