Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what contingency planning has been undertaken to manage any disruption to imports to the UK resulting from any potential problems with the implementation of the Border Target Operating Model.

The government published the draft Border Target Operating Model in April. This sets out plans to phase in security and biosecurity controls from 31 October in a way which implements critical protections at the UK border, while ensuring these new controls are as simple as possible for businesses to comply with.

We developed the draft document alongside the Scottish and Welsh Governments and officials from the Northern Ireland Executive, and continue to work collaboratively to design and be able to implement a model for the whole of the UK.

We are also working closely with businesses to get this right. During the engagement period on the draft model we have spoken to UK and international businesses and their supply chains to help them understand the new requirements and gather their views on them. We have listened closely to the feedback we received from stakeholders and are carefully considering what more we can do to support business readiness for the introduction of new controls before the final TOM is published later this summer.

We have also been working through our embassies across the EU to ensure readiness in Member States. The final version of the model we publish will respond to the feedback we have had and will set out further detail to support supply chain readiness.

While businesses will need to prepare for new requirements, we will continue to take a pragmatic approach to the introduction of border controls to ensure trade is not disrupted.