Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what progress has been made on implementing a fully digital trade documentation system to help facilitate the cross-border movement of goods and reduce delays for (a) businesses reliant on just-in-time food supply chains and (b) other businesses.

In December 2020, the Government published the 2025 Border Strategy. As we set out in this strategy, we are committed to developing a Single Trade Window for the UK, which will create a single portal through which information required to import and export can be submitted to border agencies. We will invest £16m during 2021-22 to take forward the foundational elements of this project across Government.

Alongside the work to develop the UK’s Single Trade Window, we continue to identify and pursue opportunities to digitise border documentation wherever possible, including paperwork which stems from international requirements. Aligned with this, we are identifying opportunities to make permanent a number of digitisation changes which have been implemented as a short term response to the Covid-19 pandemic.