Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate he has made of (a) how long it takes to train a customs official and (b) the number of customs officials that (i) have been recruited and (ii) still need to be recruited for the purposes of operating the protocol in Northern Ireland.

HMRC have resource plans in place to enable them to meet their post-Transition Period requirements, including delivery of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

As a large department, HMRC use a combination of external recruitment and internal moves to fill vacancies, allowing for a strong blend of new and experienced staff and giving flexibility to allocate resource where and when it is needed.

For some roles, only on-the-job experience or training is required, whereas people in technical roles such as compliance undertake a rigorous and structured programme of learning. Many of these individuals have completed their technical training and are now consolidating that learning by working on “rest of the world” customs cases in preparation for the end of the Transition Period.