20 August 2018
There have been number of recent newspaper articles (MailOnline, Sunday Times and Evening Standard) and headlines on passport queues and Heathrow’s failure to meet immigration control targets, on more than 6,000 occasions.
This visibly brings to light and supports the concerns that Anti-Counterfeiting Group members have raised with Government for the past 6 years. In short, our whole enforcement structure is creaking. Our precious enforcement resources are dreadfully over-stretched and have been pushed to the absolute limit. A clear warning of our impending fate came two years ago in a report by the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, David Bolt, who warned that Border Force (BF) officials at Gatwick Airport were under “considerable strain” with a 12% fall in staff from December 2015 to June 2016. This squared with the dilemma facing Police authorities, as officers in England and Wales fell from a peak of 144,000 in 2009 to 122,000 in 2016. Unfortunately, at the same time, even our local Trading Standards (TS) Authority resources were being slashed. A reduction of 56% in the number of TS officers has left some services with just one qualified officer.
The current plight of Border Force is ominously portrayed in the fight against the global trade of counterfeit and pirated goods. This is a $461 billion USD criminal business, run by organised international gangs, costs the UK exchequer estimated losses of £1.3 billion in unpaid tax. An opportunity for enforcement to reap actual monetary support for the economy you might think. Except our border resources are so depleted that the latest EU customs figures reveal the number of cases dealt with by UK customs was down by 83% in 2016, putting us well behind Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands and Romania.
Overall the UK market in fake goods is now worth £9.3 billion and represents 4% of all UK imports. Worryingly, over 30% of the goods actually detained by BF proved to be potentially dangerous to consumers. These included food and beverages, body care articles, medicines, electrical goods and toys. The question is how many got through?
Our businesses, economy and consumers are under ruthless attack from international criminals involved a dark trade that gets more damaging and menacing by the day. ACG call on the media to put real pressure on Government to rebuild our enforcement resources and take back control of our borders.
ACG represents more than 3,000 brands affected by this influx of fakes into the UK and delivers an international network of information, advice and contacts on all aspects of IP protection. Working with Government and law enforcement agencies since 1980, ACG is focused on providing an effective and sustained response to counterfeiting.
Membership with the ACG is the best way to work with government and enforcement bodies to protect your brand. Our Roadshows and training days help you reach out to police, trading standards and border force officers and tell them about your genuine products.