Arms promoters at the UKTI

On 1st April 2008 many of the civil servants promoting arms sales (nearly 200 in all) were transferred from the MoD to UKTI, where they have formed the Defence & Security Organisation (DSO), a "sector" alongside 40 or so civil industry sectors.

Although these civil servants continue their arms promotion work, there are a number of significant changes:

First of all, this change of department is hugely symbolic - it sent a clear message that the arms industry is not a special case deserving much greater public support than that enjoyed by other industries.

Furthermore, the first head of DSO, in contrast with all the recent heads of DESO under the MoD, does not have an arms industry background. Richard Paniguian, appointed in June 2008, is an oil executive from BP. Unlike the DESO heads, his salary will not be topped-up by the arms industry. It is reported that Alan Garwood, the former head of DESO, had his salary raised from civil service levels to £400,000 in this way.

Another change is that DSO will have to account for its use of MoD facilities and personnel. The Service Level Agreement between UKTI and the MoD, which is on the UKTI website, sets out in some detail who provides and pays for what.

Also it means an end to the arms companies' base within government from which they were able to lobby and distort other policies, particularly those with regard to arms control and human rights.

Involvement in organising arms fairs

The Business Development Directorate of UKTI DSO includes a team which co-ordinates participation in UK and overseas defence and security exhibitions.

The UKTI DSO continues to draw up the list of delegations for UK defence exhibitions. (Source: Supplementary memoranda from the Ministry of Defence/ House of Commons-International Development-Written Evidence-Session 2007-08). E.g. for Farnborough International Air Show 2008, UKTI DSO invited the military delegations to the fair.