Watchdog slams Number 10 for failing to prepare Brexit borders
The UK faces “widespread disruption” after the government failed to prepare for post-Brexit border controls for British businesses, the public spending watchdog has warned.
In an 85-page document released today, the National Audit Office (NAO) slammed the government for insufficient customs brokers, unprepared border sites and failure to develop adequate customs software.
The report found that preparedness had been hampered by the coronavirus crisis, but that failure of the government to prepare border controls over the past three years had exacerbated the situation.
“Some of this uncertainty could have been avoided, and better preparations made, had the government addressed sooner issues such as expanding the customs intermediary market, developing a solution for roll-on, roll-off traffic [and] upscaling customs systems,” the watchdog said.
The watchdog said that according to the government’s latest “reasonable worst-case planning assumptions”, between 40 and 70 per cent of lorries travelling between the EU and the UK may still not be ready for new border controls.
The NAO warned of two-hour queues to board boats at Dover and traffic jams of up to 7,000 lorries.
It said the government’s plans for Kent ID cards and giant lorry parks “is still developing, with various issues yet to be resolved”.
From 1 January the UK will need to process upwards of 270m customs declarations a year — almost five times current numbers — according to estimates by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).
Emergency measures to ensure critical products such as medicine can enter the country on additional ferries are also proving “difficult to enact” because of the pandemic, the report warned.
Meg Hillier, Labour MP and chair of the public accounts committee, said the government “simply hasn’t given businesses enough time to prepare”.
“It’s incredibly worrying that, with two months to go, critical computer systems haven’t been properly tested. The government can only hope that everything comes together on the day but this is not certain,” she said.
The reports findings follow widespread alarm that Britain’s businesses are not ready for Brexit, as the UK hurtles towards the transition period deadline on 31 December.
The Treasury Committee last month wrote to chancellor Rishi Sunak to express “serious concerns” that an eleventh-hour trade deal with the EU would not give businesses enough time to prepare for Brexit.
The select committee said it was left with a “significant number of outstanding questions and issues”, following an evidence session around the UK’s preparedness for the end of the transition period on 31 December.
“It appears that the government has left it very late to develop all the IT needed in time, with testing and changes still being made now, years after the government had chosen to leave the EU customs union,” said the letter to the chancellor.
It comes after HMRC yesterday sent out 250,000 letters and emails to traders urging them to act now to avoid Brexit-related disruption in the coming months.
HMRC’s Katherine Green and Sophie Dean said: “We understand that these are challenging times, but time is running out for businesses to get ready.
“New customs and tax rules will not change or go away if a Free Trade Agreement is negotiated, so businesses should act now to ensure they are ready for the end of the transition period.”
A report released in September by the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) found that just over a third of UK companies have completed a Brexit risk assessment this year.
The business lobby group said British businesses have “significant unanswered questions” about the end of the transition period, with around half of UK firms having done nothing to prepare for Brexit.