LONDON — It was billed as the “world’s most effective border.”
In December 2020, as the United Kingdom prepared to enter a brave new world outside the European Union, the then-Tory government outlined plans for a “Single Trade Window” to “radically simplify traders’ interactions with the border.”
The platform, backed by a £180 million investment, would allow importers and exporters to file all their paperwork digitally in a single place, saving time and money.
But, after years of delays and setbacks, the project — which the government estimated would cost £330 million in total to deliver — has still not seen the light of day.
Now it may be abandoned altogether.
Four people briefed on the plans told POLITICO the Cabinet Office is now consulting on the future of the program as part of its submission to the spending review.
Four options are now under consideration in Whitehall.
These include the choice to “do nothing” — effectively pulling the plug on the project — or to “maintain the current STW asset and undertake discovery work with a view to seeking funding at a future Spending Review.”
Also under consideration is a “data centric” approach, which could involve the creation of either a “hub” for third-party software developers or else a “two-way messaging service” allowing businesses to provide additional data to government, which would in turn provide improved messaging to traders.
The final option is to continue delivery of a full-scale single trade window on the lines of the previous program.
“The prize of the single trade window was a quarter of billion in savings for business,” Liam Byrne, chair of the U.K. parliament’s business and trade committee told POLITICO. “If it’s not happening then the U.K. is going to need a really ambitious reset with the EU to cut the red tape strangling our great British exporters, especially small business.”
Fresh delays
The development comes after the government announced last year that it was pausing delivery of the project in 2025-26 “in the context of financial challenges.”
The delay followed a scathing report in May last year from the National Audit Office, with the public spending watchdog warning that the program’s objectives and timescales were “overly optimistic and continue to under-estimate the complexity of what is required.”
Britain’s Brexit border regime — known as the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) — has already been beset by delays, with checks on medium-risk fruit and vegetables postponed until July.
The prospect of further delays to the single trade window program will come as a disappointment to many businesses, who are struggling with the complexity and cost of the BTOM.
In its submission to the government’s spending review process, the British Chambers of Commerce said the creation of a single trade window would “yield efficiency savings for traders and government alike and help boost international trade.”
It urged the government to “reach a decision in principle to continue with this program, introduce a timeline for delivery of STW, and support it with multi-year funding through this phase of the spending review.”
One person briefed on the plans — granted anonymity in order to speak freely — said having a single trade window was “key to unlocking a world-class digital border from a business user experience.”
“To further delay or not pursue this lacks recognition of the impact of how the BTOM and cross-border trade is working — or not — for so many businesses,” they added.
Conservative peer Lucy Neville-Rolfe, the Conservative former Cabinet Office minister in charge of the brief, told POLITICO: “This sounds very disappointing.”
“I put a great deal of effort into the single trade window as it is the vehicle for the biggest opportunity for business at the border. It uses leading technology to dispense with duplication and elaborate processes and speed up the flow of goods both into and out of the U.K. including in trade with third countries as well as goods in transit.
“We are talking about many hundreds of millions in benefits to business, trade and growth and at the time HMG had budgeted for this.”
Costs rack up
A Freedom of Information Request submitted by POLITICO shows that HM Revenue and Customs has spent at least £105.18 million on the plans to date. This includes £25.8 million in 2022-23, £44.81 million in 2023-24 and £34.54 million in 2024-25, not including February and March this year.
In its response, HMRC noted that in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 financial years, the program was the responsibility of the Cabinet Office’s Future Borders Programme. It is unclear exactly how much the Cabinet Office has spent on the project to date.
In a recent debate on the issue, Financial Secretary to the Treasury Spencer Livermore told peers the government still had a “long-term intention to deliver a single trade window.”
“Businesses benefit from trade, so minimizing administrative burdens and reducing trade frictions remain a priority for this government,” he said. “We will consider the role the single trade window can play in that, and we will provide an update as part of the next phase of the Spending Review.”
A government spokesperson said: “We do not comment on speculation ahead of the Spring Forecast.”
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