Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the average waiting time for members of the public calling His Majesty's Revenue and Customs by phone.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC publishes its call waiting times on GOV.UK:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-quarterly-performance-updates
Improving day-to-day performance is a key priority for HMRC.
In 2024-25, HMRC handled 71.5% of adviser attempts across their helplines and had an average call answer time of 18 minutes 38 seconds. This year (April – September 2025), HMRC have handled 83.8% of adviser attempts and average call wait times have decreased to 13 minutes 30 seconds.
HMRC are taking steps to make sure more of their services are digital. HMRC online services and the HMRC app are convenient to access and receive high customer satisfaction ratings. As more people use HMRC online services, advisers are freed up to support those with more complex queries and those who are digitally excluded.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the additional costs to Post Offices of person-to-person parcels going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland and requiring documentation under the Windsor Framework.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government has not made a specific estimate of any costs to the Post Office of adapting to the arrangements set out in the Windsor Framework.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that those flying from Belfast airports to the EU can buy duty-free goods.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government has no plans to reform duty-free shopping between Northern Ireland and the EU, which would require border controls between Northern Ireland and Ireland and would run counter to the principles of the Windsor Framework.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many checks took place on goods moving between Great Britain to Northern Ireland via the UK Internal Market Scheme between 1 February and 10 March.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Full information on the goods moved under the UK Internal Market scheme between 1 February and 10 March 2024 is not currently available. The UK Internal Market Scheme is currently live with over 7700 businesses in the scheme as of 11 March 2024, which includes over 3000 new businesses that did not benefit from the previous UK Trader Scheme.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what specific information must be provided for authorisation to access the UK Internal Market Scheme, and whether this includes information to be declared “for customs purposes” in accordance with Article 9(2) of a Joint Committee Decision No 1/2023.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The UK Internal Market Scheme (UKIMS) replaced the UK Trader Scheme on 30 September 2023, allowing a much wider range of businesses to move goods into Northern Ireland under the existing ‘not at risk’ arrangements, with over 3,000 new businesses now authorised.
From 30 September 2024, these traders will also be able to benefit from the new simplified processes for UK internal market movements which will scrap burdensome supplementary declarations and use a much shorter, simpler dataset containing standard commercial information.
The specific information to be provided in respect of UKIMS authorisation is set out on GOV.UK[1].
[1] https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-authorisation-for-the-uk-internal-market-scheme-if-you-bring-goods-into-northern-ireland
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether customs paperwork is needed for goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland via the UK Internal Market Scheme.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The UK Internal Market Scheme (UKIMS) replaced the UK Trader Scheme on 30 September 2023, allowing a much wider range of businesses to move goods into Northern Ireland under the existing ‘not at risk’ arrangements, with over 3,000 new businesses now authorised.
From 30 September 2024, these traders will also be able to benefit from the new simplified processes for UK internal market movements which will scrap burdensome supplementary declarations and use a much shorter, simpler dataset containing standard commercial information.
The specific information to be provided in respect of UKIMS authorisation is set out on GOV.UK[1].
[1] https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-authorisation-for-the-uk-internal-market-scheme-if-you-bring-goods-into-northern-ireland
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what authorisations are required, and what customs information needs to be provided, by a trader moving goods from Liverpool to Glasgow or between any other two locations in Great Britain.
Answered by Baroness Penn
There is usually no requirement for authorisations or customs declarations for goods being moved between locations within Great Britain. In certain circumstances customs formalities may be required for movements between two locations in GB, for example non-domestic goods that have been imported but are not yet released into the UK market.
Additionally, where a business moves goods within GB, it is likely to have to provide ordinary commercial information about what is being moved to any courier, haulier or parcel operator contracted to move the goods, which could include, for example, a description of the goods, their value and their destination.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what has been the total cost so far of setting up (1) the UK Internal Market Scheme, and (2) the Trader Support Service.
Answered by Baroness Penn
(1) The UK Internal Market Scheme (UKIMS) will replace the UK Trader Scheme (UKTS) on 30 September 2023. The launch of the UKIMS is an operational activity and delivered through resources in place to manage the UKTS
(2) The total cost of setting up and running TSS (August 2020-August 2023) is £411.6m. The TSS cost figures quoted do not include any HMRC operational spend on UKIMS, however they may include some spend on the TSS's own readiness activities for UKIMS.
We are not able to provide a figure for spend on UKIMS because we do not hold the information at that granular level, where the scheme has been delivered as part of a wider programme of work. For example, operational staff will be trained to work on UKIMS as well as other related areas and trying to estimate exact cost could lead to inaccuracies in reporting.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what level of responsibility hauliers have in ensuring that commodity codes are correct on consignments going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
Answered by Baroness Penn
When fully implemented from 30 September 2024, the new Windsor Framework arrangements will remove the need to provide a commodity code for each movement of goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, for traders who are part of the UK Internal Market Scheme (UKIMS). Instead, traders will be able to provide a simple goods description to the Trader Support Service (TSS) or their customs agent.
When making a goods movement, most traders will provide data about the movement either to their haulier or directly to the TSS or their customs agent, who will submit the required data to HMRC. The trader will be responsible for ensuring that this data is correct. It is a commercial choice for the parties involved whether they make further contractual arrangements to manage liability.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Penn (HL5751), for what reasons they consider that introducing duty free at airports in Northern Ireland for passengers flying to the EU would undermine their commitment to maintaining frictionless trade.
Answered by Baroness Penn
Introducing duty free shopping between Northern Ireland and the EU (which includes the Republic of Ireland) would require implementing allowances for the movement of these goods, to stop the uncontrolled flow of tax-free goods into either Northern Ireland or the EU (including the Republic of Ireland). These allowances would require enforcement. Therefore, if this were to be implemented, controls on the movement of goods between NI and the Republic of Ireland would be required, contravening the shared ambitions of the UK, Ireland and the EU.