Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the average length of delay at the border to hauliers exporting to the EU under the terms of the new trade deal with the EU compared to customs union membership.

Now the that transition period has ended EU authorities require additional paperwork and checks when goods are moved from the UK to the EU. Border readiness checks are undertaken both in the EU and within the UK (to ensure that freight can enter the EU after it has left the UK). These additional checks take time and there will inevitably be a certain proportion that are not border ready (i.e. have the correct documentation), which may result in some disruption. DfT analysis has focused on a Reasonable Worst Case Scenario for planning purposes, which can be found here. Note that this is not an estimate but a scenario used for contingency planning purposes. As yet it is too early to use observed data to provide an estimate, as freight volumes have been low, as they usually are in early January.