Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many businesses have applied to his Department to use the simplified declaration for imports since 1 Jan 2022; how many of those applications were successful; and how many days it took on average for authorisation to be approved for those successful applications.

Since 1 January 2022, HMRC has received 10 new applications to use the simplified customs declaration process for imports. HMRC aims to process a complete application within 60 days of receipt, with the legal deadline for this being 120 days from receipt. January’s applications are being processed in line with this target. During January, HMRC approved 35 applications, including those carried forward from the previous month, which took between 29- 54 days to approve. As of 9 February, HMRC have authorised a total of 764 businesses to use simplified customs declaration process for imports, including new applications approved this year.