UK HMRC: ‘Not in public interest’ to disclose identity of company behind £2.7m settlement

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (‘HMRC’), the UK enforcement body for breaches of export controls, has given a tight-lipped response to a Parliamentary Committee’s question regarding a ‘very high’ settlement (payment of £2.7m) made in relation to an export of unlicenced military goods. As reported by WorldECR earlier this year, in April, the UK Export Control Joint Unit (‘ECJU’) announced that ‘Between December 2021 and February 2022, HM Revenue & Customs issued compound settlement offers between £1,000 and circa £2.7 million to 8 UK exporters.’ The second largest settlement was for £60,000.

In correspondence to the HMRC from the Committees on Arms Export Controls (‘CAEC’), chair Mark Garnier MP noted that given the settlement’s size, CAEC sought information from the HMRC, including the name of the exporter, the destination of the exports, the cost of the HMRC investigation culminating in the penalty, and whether any similarly sized penalty had ever been paid before.

In response, HMRC’s Richard Las and Joanne Cheetham said that it was policy ‘not to publish the names of individuals or companies accepting Compound Settlements’, as was made clear to companies that accept their terms, and that the HMRC ‘do not consider that disclosing the company name would drive compliance, promote voluntary disclosure or be proportionate,’ and it was therefore not in the public interest. Nor, they said, was it policy to disclose the destination of the exports. They did reveal however, that the investigation into the case had taken four months to conclude, and that it was the largest such fine to date.

The CAEC has recently completed an inquiry into UK arms exports in 2019. For more see: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/15/committees-on-arms-export-controls/news/171344/uk-arms-exports-in-2019/