Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the economic effect of the time taken to implement the Customs Declarations Services programme.

HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC’s) Customs Declaration Service (CDS) programme has been reviewed by the Infrastructure & Projects Authority and the National Audit Office. These plans are on track but not without risk, as is normal for any programme of this size, and contingency planning has been carried out to ensure the successful delivery of the new CDS system without significant impact on the smooth running of the UK’s international trade.

HMRC has a strategy for moving customers to CDS. This has been reached through extensive stakeholder and customer engagement, working closely with key partners in international trade. Our guiding design principles are to ensure minimal change to processes and minimal disruption to operations to reduce burdens on business. There is still a year to go before customers will start transitioning to the new CDS system.

The timetable for implementation has been discussed and influenced by trade partners and key customers to fit with their preferred lead in times where changes to their systems were unavoidable.