Small Businesses: Import Controls

(asked on 9th December 2021) - View Source

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Government has taken to inform small and medium sized enterprises of the new import processes taking effect from 1 January 2022; and how much money the Government has spent on dispersing that information.


Answered by
Michael Ellis Portrait
Michael Ellis
This question was answered on 16th December 2021

Government officials and Ministers meet weekly with representatives of trade bodies that represent SMEs, such as the Federation of Small Businesses and the Confederation of British Industry, to discuss how best to target information at SMEs. We also engage larger companies to ensure they help prepare smaller companies in their supply chains for the changes ahead.

The Government has also prepared several freely available tools to assist all traders with the new import processes being introduced from 1 January 2022. This includes the publication and continuous updating of the Border Operating Model; over 200 webinars delivered by the Cabinet Office reaching around 20,000 UK and EU traders to date, and a haulier handbook translated into 17 languages.

In addition, our ‘Check, Change, Go’ communications campaign has been designed using polling and insights from SMEs. Based on these insights, all paid for marketing has been developed to target these audiences to ensure they are aware of the effect of new rules in place between the EU and the UK.

Given much of this activity falls within standard government business as usual, it is not possible to disaggregate all costs relating to communications specifically for preparing small and medium sized businesses. However the Cabinet Office publishes expenditure on gov.uk, including on public information campaigns on a rolling monthly basis as part of routine government transparency arrangements.

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