Importantly for the security industry, as part of the shake-up a specific security directorate will be established within the new UK Trade & Investment Defence & Security Organisation (UKTI DSO).
The new body – located within the government’s international business development organisation – takes over responsibility for supporting and promoting the UK’s defence and security exports from the Defence Exports Services Organisation (DESO).
The government said the new security directorate will aim to provide a more coherent and strategic approach to supporting what it described as “this increasingly important sector”.
Lord Digby Jones, Minister for Trade and Investment and Minister responsible for the new group, said: “Drawing on UKTI’s wider expertise in innovative marketing, UKTI DSO will work with the sectors to promote a UK defence and security brand as much as individual products and services. This presents a tremendous opportunity to ensure the UK’s continued success in a fiercely competitive global market.”
The BSIA pledged to work closely with the new body, which it welcomed as a vote of confidence in the sector.
BSIA Export Council Section Chairman, Mike Parry, said: “We welcome the formation of the new organisation as recognition of the contribution that the security sector makes to British industry and the importance of exporting our quality products overseas.”
Parry added: “The BSIA’s Export Council continues to work closely with commercial officers and overseas buyers to promote the British security industry. At IFSEC we will once more be hosting an inward mission from countries as diverse as Bulgaria, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. We will also again be organising a Meet the Buyers event, arranging a series of ‘speed-dating’ style meetings between British companies and overseas buyers. Our hope is that UKTI DSO will be able to further support this good work in the years to come.”
