Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 19 December 2018 to Question 203920 on Customs, what completion dates have been set for the contracts for the (a) development and (b) upgrade of IT systems in relation to customs declarations at British ports.

The primary customs declaration platforms in place when the UK leaves the EU will be a combination of CHIEF, which is the existing declaration system; and the new Customs Declaration Service (CDS). The development of the new CDS service, and the upgrade of the existing CHIEF service, are being delivered through a combination of in-house technical expertise within HMRC and contracts with commercial partners. The changes required for a no deal scenario will be delivered in March 2019.