Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many additional customs officials they plan to hire after the end of the UK-EU transition period

Border Force has delivered a largescale recruitment and training exercise, which has seen an uplift of permanent staff, bringing the number of full-time equivalent Border Force staff to over 8,700 from 7,700 in March 2018. This includes a brand-new multi-disciplinary Readiness Task Force (RTF) of c.300 officers, which is available to deploy across the UK at short notice to deal with emerging issues and peaks in demand. We are continuing to build a pipeline of resource to flexibly respond to future requirements and are committed to ensuring we have the necessary staff in place to keep our borders secure.

The latest published staffing and finance figures for Border Force can be found in the Home Office Annual Report for 2018-2019 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-office-annual-report-and-accounts-2018-to-2019

HM Revenue and Customs has overall responsibility for customs policy. HMRC is collaborating with partners across Whitehall to explore a range of mitigating actions to ensure continued preparations for the end of the transition period whilst maintaining core front line services and supporting the government response to Covid-19 and will be well staffed for the end of the transition period.