Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made, for each of the port operators involved in the eight successful Freeport bids, in view of the responsibilities they will be required to be authorised to exercise for ensuring goods on site follow the correct customs processes, of the resources that will be necessary for HMRC to deploy in order for it to exercise appropriate due diligence in terms of (a) evaluating and assessing their application for authorisation to exercise these responsibilities and (b) monitoring and inspecting their exercise of these responsibilities, and if he will make a statement.

Freeport customs sites will be authorised by the UK Government. There are a number of requirements, including robust security requirements and ensuring goods remain under customs control, that both operators and businesses will have to demonstrate as part of the authorisation. Additionally, to protect the UK’s customs compliance regime, HMRC and Border Force will continue to conduct compliance checks on goods within the Freeport customs site.

Work is ongoing to develop the HMRC operational processes that are required to support the introduction of Freeports. Once completed, this work will inform the resources required for HMRC to authorise customs sites.