London, UK: Michael Gove, the minister in charge of Brexit, today unveiled the new border system for a post-Brexit Britain – with a £700m package for more infrastructure and technology to help businesses trade.
The new system will form part of what the government has claimed will be the “world’s most effective border”.
New border controls will be introduced in three stages to give businesses crippled by coronavirus extra time to get ready for the change.
The transition period with the EU will end on December 31 this year when Britain will new controls controls on what is coming and going in the country.
Gove told the House of Commons the new system would “assist the smooth movement of goods” and help the UK “lay the foundations for the world’s most effective border by 2025.” He admitted that there is much “work to do” on creating a new system.
The £705m will pay for border posts, jobs and technology at borders to help new border control measures.
• The funding will include 500 more Border Force staff.
• The £705 million package includes £235 million for staffing and IT systems, and £470 million for port and inland infrastructure to ensure compliance with new customs procedures and controls.
• New border infrastructure will be built inland where there is no space at ports, while ports will get one-off financial support to ensure the right infrastructure is in place.
• Of the £235 million for staffing and IT systems:
• £100 million will be used to develop HMRC systems to reduce the burden on traders.
• £20 million will be spent on new equipment to keep the country safe.
• £15 million will go towards building new data infrastructure to enhance border flow and management.
• £10 million will be used to recruit around 500 more Border Force personnel.
Because of the shock to British firms from the economic shutdown during lockdown, the government will take six months to bring in the new measures. Gove said today the new system will “give business the certainty and direction they need to prepare for the end of the transition period when the UK becomes an independent trading nation for the first time in nearly 50 years.”
Food products including animals and plants could also be subject to physical checks at their destination but these measures will not be brought in until next April. This will give supermarkets time to get ready after working.
According to guidance on the new system, there will be even more checks on goods – and any animals or plants or their products will have to be inspected at border control posts.
The FTA welcomed the announcement. Alex Veitch, head of international policy, FTA, said: “Logistics as an industry is highly flexible and can adapt quickly to changing circumstances, as we have seen throughout the Covid-19 crisis, but nevertheless it is good to have confirmation of a large proportion of the detail of how goods are expected to move between the UK and EU from the start of next year. We are advising our members to do all they can to get Brexit ready, for example adapting their systems to produce the right border documentation, working with customers to understand the requirements for each party in the supply chain, and enrolling in trusted trader schemes like CTC Transit. These will all be needed whether or not the UK government strikes a deal with the EU.
“However, logistics businesses are also urging the government to continue pursuing a deal with their EU counterparts as an urgent priority. This will to make it simpler to trade, ensure trucks and planes from the UK have access to the EU, and minimise economic disruption. Logistics is committed to making the new relationship with the EU work – we now need government to do the same and strike a deal.”
Speaking on BBC Andrew Marr show on Sunday, Gove admitted that there will be checks on goods entering and leaving Northern Ireland. Gove said that the government “will be saying more about the specific situation in Northern Ireland later this month, but we will be building on the command paper which we published earlier this year which lays out the way in which we can ensure that there’s no need for customs infrastructure on the island of Ireland and what we are doing is making sure that people in Northern Ireland can continue to have unfettered access to the whole of the UK”.
Gove said that he did not want to pre-empt the government’s coming comments on “how we are going to implement the Northern Ireland Protocol”. “Well there are some specific checks that will occur for products of animal origin — sorry to be so technical, but in essence, we’ve known that the island of Ireland, since Victorian times, has been a single epidemiological zone so that vets know that you treat the island of Ireland differently for some rules than Great Britain …”
Gove said: “Now in respect of the Northern Ireland protocol there will be some checks for products of animal origin that go from GB to Northern Ireland but we want them to be as light touch and minimal as possible.”
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