Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to HM Revenue and Customs' press release entitled Government backs high street with acceleration of cheap import reforms and crackdown on dodgy online sellers, published on 23 June 2026, what estimate she has made of the potential impact of the reforms on the volume of low-value imports.

At Tax Update Day 2026, the Government announced that it would accelerate the removal of the customs duty relief for low value imports and introduce a new set of customs arrangements by October 2028 at the latest.

The Government has assessed the impacts of these reforms as part of policy development. However, due to the limited data that is currently collected on volumes of low value imports, the Government has not produced an estimate of the impact of the reforms on the future volume of low value imports. Under the current simplified customs arrangements for low value imports, declarations are aggregated and do not routinely record individual consignments. Therefore, the Government’s assessment has focused on trade value, customs revenue, and compliance.