Draft Customs Safety and Security Procedures (EU Exit) (No. 2) Regulations 2021

Lucy Frazer Excerpts

Wednesday 8th December 2021 General Committees

[The Chair]

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[The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Lucy Frazer)]

I beg to move,

That the Cttee has considered the draft Customs Safety and Security Procedures (EU Exit) (No. 2) Regulations 2021.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies.

The primary aim of the draft statutory instrument is to support businesses’ recovery from the pandemic by delaying for six months the introduction of safety and security declarations on the movement of goods to Great Britain. Before I speak to the SI in detail, I will set out the system operated by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

The UK’s customs, safety and security regime is based on the World Customs Organisation’s SAFE framework of standards, which sets out a series of standards to support and facilitate secure supply chains and trade at the global level. Under the framework, goods authorities must collect and risk assess goods data before goods arrive in or depart from their customs territory. In the UK, that information is provided in the form of safety and security declarations. The declarations are usually submitted by the carrier or haulier. The responsibility may be passed to a third party, such as a customs intermediary.

Before the UK left the European Union, the safety and security declarations were not required for imports to and from the EU. The EU, as the Committee knows, forms a single safety and security zone. While the UK was part of the EU, only goods entering or leaving the EU were required to submit safety and security declarations. As the UK is no longer in the EU, since the end of the transition period the Government have been introducing new customs controls for EU imports gradually, to give businesses time to prepare for the new requirements. As part of that, and to account for the unforeseen impact on traders of the pandemic, the Government have waived the requirement for safety and security declarations on goods imported from the EU and other territories, such as Norway and Switzerland, where such declarations would not have been required before the end of the transition period. That waiver runs until 31 December this year.

In September this year, the Government announced their intention to grant a further extension before the introduction of the safety and security declaration requirements. The pandemic has had longer lasting impacts on businesses in the UK and the EU than many observers expected in March. There are also pressures on global supply chains caused by a wide range of factors, including the pandemic. The extension is designed to provide additional support to businesses, which face challenges from unprecedented and long-lasting disruption caused by covid and the related impacts on global supply chains. The draft instrument will therefore extend the waiver for safety and security declaration requirements for goods imported into Great Britain from places where such declarations were not required before the end of the transition period. The extension is for six months, so the waiver will last until the end of June 2022. Safety and security declarations will be required for such imports from 1 July 2022.

Border Force will continue to undertake intelligence-led risk assessments of imports into Great Britain. Safety and security declarations were not required for imports from the EU before exit day. As a result, the extension simply maintains the status quo. Existing intelligence sources will continue to be used to secure our borders in the same way as they are now. There is no significant increase in security risk for the UK as a result of the waiver.

The draft instrument does not affect safety and security requirements in Northern Ireland. Under the terms of the Northern Ireland protocol, Northern Ireland remains aligned with the EU’s safety and security zone. That means that there are no safety and security requirements for goods moved between Northern Ireland and the EU. The instrument also has no effect on safety and security declaration requirements for goods imported from the rest of the world, for which declarations will continue to be required.

The statutory instrument grants a temporary waiver on the requirement to submit safety and security declarations for goods moved into Great Britain from the EU. It will allow us to support businesses affected by covid and related global supply chain issues, while balancing the need to maintain security standards within Great Britain. I hope therefore that colleagues will join me in supporting the draft regulations, which I commend to the Committee.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lucy Frazer]

Let me respond briefly. The hon. Member for Ealing North spent some time talking about security. He will note that these requirements were not in place before, so this waiver simply maintains the status quo. There is therefore no additional risk in continuing it. I am sure that he is aware, from having listened to my predecessor in previous debates, that Border Force will continue to undertake intelligence-led risk assessments of imports into GB, as it has done during the current waiver period. I am happy to give him that reassurance.

[James Murray]

I must press the Minister on that point. Surely she cannot have it both ways. To follow on from the point made by the right hon. Member for Maldon, either the requirements are necessary, in which case their delay is having an impact, or they are not necessary, which raises the question of why we are here at all.

[Lucy Frazer]

I am happy to answer that point and those made by my right hon. Friend at the same time. We need to bring in the checks, as well as the staged controls, which we committed to in January, because we are required to do so for customs in the round under the terms of our arrangements. I was addressing the element of security risk. As we are simply maintaining the status quo, there is no additional risk in continuing that arrangement.

I will touch on border security more broadly in terms of migration. Border Force regularly reviews its capacity, plans and resources, and it deploys and recruits staff when necessary to maintain border security. The reason why we are not bringing in and extending those arrangements at this time is simply to do with timing and the disruption that has hit businesses so far.

The hon. Member for West Dunbartonshire mentioned a whole range of issues that really relate to Brexit as a whole. That decision has passed; we have left the EU and we are now dealing with the arrangements that we need to bring in as a result of that decision.

[Martin Docherty-Hughes]

The Minister must recognise the point made by the OBR. Also, GB may have left the European Union, but Northern Ireland has full access to the single market.

[Lucy Frazer]

As the hon. Gentleman knows, one of the arguments put forward at the time of the referendum was about the opportunity to trade not only with the EU, but outside the EU. He will know that we have entered into more than 60 trade agreements with partners across the world, and that trade with those countries is encouraging. For all those reasons, I comment the draft instrument to the Committee.

Question put and agreed to.