Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what information her Department holds on the proportion of imports from China that were worth less than £135 in each year since 2015.

Goods valued at £135 or less imported into the UK are not subject to customs duty and are predominantly imported through a simplified customs declaration.

As part of this simplified declaration multiple goods can be bulk declared without providing the total number of consignments or country of origin - in other words, the importer is not asked the specific country where the goods were manufactured or wholly obtained. HMRC therefore does not routinely collect customs data on the proportion of imports from China that are worth less than £135.

On April 23rd the Government announced a review of the customs treatment of Low Value Imports valued below £135. We intend to engage a broad range of stakeholders over the Spring to further understand their views and gather evidence, including on the volume and nature of low value imports, to support our analysis.