MEETING OF THE REVIEWING COMMITTEE ON THE EXPORT OF WORKS OF ART AND OBJECTS OF CULTURAL INTEREST (RCEWA)

HELD ON WEDNESDAY 3 JUNE 2009

AT THE OFFICES OFDCMS, 2-4 COCKSPUR STREET, LONDON

MINUTES OF THE POLICY DISCUSSION

Present:Lord Inglewood, Chairman

Simon Swynfen Jervis

Catherine Johns

Pamela Robertson

Christopher Wright

Anne Rees, Legal Adviser to RCEWA

Gerry McQuillan, Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA)

Anastasia Tennant, MLA

Frances Wilson, Secretary

Henry Yallop, Assistant Secretary

Andrew Petherick, Export Licensing Manager, MLA

*AP denotes action point

1.Apologies

1.1Apologies had been received from David Ekserdjian, Tim Knox and Johnny van Haeften.

2.Minutes of the previous meeting and matters arising

2.1The minutes of the last meeting on 6 May 2009 were accepted as a factually accurate record.

2.2 There was one action point from that meeting:

*AP1 The Secretariat to provide further mock-ups of the cover of the report.

These had been ordered from the designers and would be ready for the July meeting.

There were no other matters arising from the minutes.

3.Update on current cases and recent deferrals
3.1The Assistant Secretary provided an update of current and recent deferrals.

4.Press cuttings

4.1These were noted.

5.Temporary licences

5.1The committee continued its discussion of the proposals for changing the procedures for handling temporary licence applications which had been introduced at the last meeting. A briefing note describing the 50 year policy and the 50 year rule was tabled. Anne Rees emphasised that the 50 year policy was a matter of general policy, not legislation, which must allow for exceptions in special cases as long as the reasons for doing so were sound and justifiable. It was acknowledged that it would be difficult for the Export Licensing Unit to know when it might be appropriate to treat a particular licence application as an exception unless they were advised to do so by someone with the relevant expertise. Currently the Head of the Acquisition, Export and Loans Unit scanned most incoming licence applications, but this would not be possible should the Export Licensing Unit be relocated to Birmingham. Concerns were raised about the possible effects of the proposals on the export of art that was less than 50 years old, and also about the treatment of temporary licences for items that had been conditionally exempted from inheritance tax. Andrew Petherick said that he had begun drafting a document that might form the basis of a consultation paper, and agreed to have this ready to present to theCommitteeat the next meeting, taking into account the concerns which had been raised.He also offered to circulate some information about the French system of export control.

*AP1Andrew Petherick to provide a first draft of the consultation paper for the next meeting.

*AP2Andrew Petherick to circulate details of the French system of export control.

6.Export Licensing Unit Report: Expert Adviser Statistics

6.1 This was noted. The Committee discussed how the service provided by the Export Licensing Unit might be affected by its proposed transfer from London to Birmingham. Andrew Petherick told the committee that approximately 60% of applications for export licences were delivered to and collected from the Export Licensing Unit by courier. The possibility of offering an express service based in London was discussed. It was noted that MLA could not, under EU Regulations, charge for issuing export licences, but the question of whether it might be possible to charge for an express service was raised.

*AP3 Anne Rees to find out whether MLA might be able to charge for an express licensing service.

7Annual Report 2008/09

7.1A fifth draft of the policy section and a second draft of the Operation of the Control section had been circulated before the meeting. The Secretariat was asked to revise the policy section to reflect the comments which had been raised at the meeting of the Advisory Council on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest on the morning of 3 June.It was agreed that the final version should be ready by the end of August.

*AP4 The Secretariat to revise the policy section to reflect comments raised at the Advisory Council meeting.

8 Any other business

8.1TheCommittee agreed that a summary of the discussions at the meeting of the Advisory Council which had taken place on the morning of 3 June 2009 should be placed on MLA’s website.

*AP5 The Secretariat to put a summary of the Advisory Council’s discussions on MLA’s website.