Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of goods being imported into the UK from (a) other EU and (b) non-EU countries are physically checked when entering the UK.

The EU is a Customs Union and the 28 member countries form a single territory for customs purposes. This means that no customs duties are paid on goods moving between EU Member States and goods that have been legally imported can circulate throughout the EU with no further customs checks. As a consequence Border Force do not routinely conduct customs compliance checks on EU goods.

For imports from the rest of the world, HMRC reported to the European Commission that 1.3% of standard customs declarations were subject to physical examinations for customs compliance purposes in 2017.