Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the new Customs Declaration Service will be fully operational by January 2019; and whether it will have been fully tested to ensure that it is able to manage any increase in the volume of declarations associated with leaving the Customs Union.

The delivery of the new Customs Declaration Service (CDS) is on target, and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) expects to meet its planned delivery date in January 2019. CDS is undergoing comprehensive testing to ensure that it can manage an increase in the volume of declarations. HMRC is following industry best practice in carrying out that work, by performance testing the individual software components first and gradually building up to test across the whole of the CDS system.