Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many full time equivalent staff are employed in (a) implementing and (b) monitoring the (i) Trader Support Service and (ii) Movement Assistance Schemes.

The Trader Support Service (TSS) and Movement Assistance Schemes (MAS) are both important schemes that provide support to traders.

The Movement Assistance Scheme is operated by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA). Across DEFRA and APHA a combined 24.75 FTE staff are employed in the implementation and monitoring of the scheme.

The TSS is overseen by HMRC and operated by a Fujitsu-led consortium. There are currently 378 FTE staff employed by the consortium. Additionally, there are 39.4 FTE staff within HMRC working on the implementation of the service.