Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what has been the total cost so far of setting up (1) the UK Internal Market Scheme, and (2) the Trader Support Service.

(1) The UK Internal Market Scheme (UKIMS) will replace the UK Trader Scheme (UKTS) on 30 September 2023. The launch of the UKIMS is an operational activity and delivered through resources in place to manage the UKTS

(2) The total cost of setting up and running TSS (August 2020-August 2023) is £411.6m. The TSS cost figures quoted do not include any HMRC operational spend on UKIMS, however they may include some spend on the TSS's own readiness activities for UKIMS.

We are not able to provide a figure for spend on UKIMS because we do not hold the information at that granular level, where the scheme has been delivered as part of a wider programme of work. For example, operational staff will be trained to work on UKIMS as well as other related areas and trying to estimate exact cost could lead to inaccuracies in reporting.