The Restricted Enforcement Unit (REU) is an expert-level committee set up in 1987 by the British government to control export

Export

The term export is derived from the conceptual meaning as to ship the goods and services out of the port of a country. The seller of such goods and services is referred to as an "exporter" who is based in the country of export whereas the overseas based buyer is referred to as an "importer"...

s of military technology from the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, in particular the illegal export or trade of conventional weapon

Conventional weapon

The terms conventional weapons or conventional arms generally refer to weapons that are in relatively wide use that are not weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. Conventional weapons include small arms and light weapons, sea and land mines, as well as ...

ry and weapons of mass destruction

Weapons of mass destruction

A weapon of mass destruction is a weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures , natural structures , or the biosphere in general...

 not licensed for export by the Department of Trade and Industry.

The committee assesses and acts on intelligence of attempted, planned or accomplished breaches of UK export controls on sensitive items or technology to "countries of concern". It co-ordinates seizure or blocking of such materiel via its member departments.

Committee structure

The REU committee meets fortnightly, and is chaired by the Department of Trade and Industry. The REU includes representatives from the following government departments and intelligence agencies:

• The Foreign and Commonwealth Office
  Foreign and Commonwealth Office
  The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
  
  
• The Ministry of Defence
  Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)
  The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....
  
  
• Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs
  Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs
  Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs is a non-ministerial department of the UK Government responsible for the collection of taxes and the payment of some forms of state support....
  
   (formerly Her Majesty's Customs and Excise
  Her Majesty's Customs and Excise
  HM Customs and Excise was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government in the UK. It was responsible for the collection of Value added tax , Customs Duties, Excise Duties, and other indirect taxes such as Air Passenger Duty, Climate Change Levy, Insurance Premium Tax, Landfill Tax and...
  
  )
• The Security Service (MI5
  MI5
  The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
  
  )
• The Secret Intelligence Service
  Secret Intelligence Service
  The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
  
   (MI6)
• Government Communications Headquarters
  Government Communications Headquarters
  The Government Communications Headquarters is a British intelligence agency responsible for providing signals intelligence and information assurance to the UK government and armed forces...
  
   (GCHQ)

Known cases

• The REU heard evidence of the involvement of British companies in Iraq
  Iraq
  Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
  
  's attempt to construct a supergun
  Supergun
  A supergun is an extraordinarily large artillery piece. This size may be due to a large bore, barrel length or a combination of the two. While early examples tended to have a fairly short range more recent examples sometimes had an extremely high muzzle velocity resulting in a very long...
  
  , Project Babylon
  Project Babylon
  Project Babylon was a project commissioned by the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein to build a series of superguns. The design was based on research from the 1960s Project HARP led by the Canadian artillery expert Gerald Bull...
  
  , and co-ordinated the seizure of parts for the gun.