ABSTRACT
The United Kingdom and Brazil believe that non-challenge visits (NCVs) have a potentially significant contribution to make to a Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention compliance protocol. The NCV began with a site briefing followed immediately by detailed discussion of the facility declaration. Completion of the declaration form was part of the NCV preparation and as such part of the overall exercise. To assist the inspection team (IT’s) preparation a copy of the completed form was attached to the visit mandate. Since the visited facility is a public institution, no major confidentiality concerns were raised. Only on two occasions did site personnel express concerns over a new purification process under development. Although this exercise was an NCV rather than a challenge with a specific compliance concern under investigation, the IT was still tasked to keep the compliance aspect in mind. NCVs, as the first UK-Brazil joint exercise seems to indicate, are practicable and useful in addressing two interrelated objectives.
