Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to page 15 of the Government's No-Deal Readiness Report, how many new customs agents have been trained as a result of the £8 million made available for that purpose.

HMRC made £8million available from December 2018 to support customs intermediaries; £3million to increase the number of training courses available and £5million for a grant scheme to increase IT automation and fund places on training courses. A second wave of grants was made available in September 2019, with a £16m investment. Training courses can be for both new employees or to improve the skills of existing ones.

From the first wave of investment: over 3600 training courses were funded as a result of the £3m investment, and 2200 training courses were attended by businesses as a result of the £5m grant scheme, of which 1207 were undertaken by existing customs intermediaries. Employees were able to attend multiple courses so the number of individuals trained in customs procedures may be lower than the overall number of training places funded.

Grants are still being applied for and issued for the second wave of grants so figures for the number of training courses funded are not yet available.