Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer , what support his Department provides to UK businesses preparing and completing (a) import and (b) export declarations.

Delivering a deal negotiated with the EU remains the Government’s top priority. However in the event of a ‘no deal’ businesses who trade with the EU will be subject to customs controls in the same way as businesses who are trading with the rest of the world. To help businesses make this transition, a number of temporary easements have been put in place which will help businesses make this transition.

HMRC continues to proactively support businesses to meet their customs obligations engaging with a broad range of UK businesses and associations. Extensive guidance is available on gov.uk. HMRC has already written to 145,000 VAT registered EU businesses and 77,000 traders who trade with non-EU countries, to explain the steps they need to take to ahead of making import/export declarations. In addition, HMRC are actively engaged with a range of associations, small business trade bodies and intermediaries to help them prepare their members for any new customs obligations.

Further support is available from customs intermediaries. HMRC wrote to businesses in February to explain what steps businesses should take, including how to make customs declarations themselves or via an intermediary. An £8 million investment has been made available to support intermediary training and increased automation.