Policy paper

Spring Budget 2023 customs package

Published 15 March 2023

This was published under the 2022 to 2024 Sunak Conservative government

At Spring Budget 2023, the government announced a package of measures intended to simplify customs import and export processes for traders, taking advantage of new freedoms following EU exit whilst at the same time upholding the UK’s high regulatory and security standards at the border.

This publication aims to provide more detail for stakeholders on some of the measures in the customs package. These measures reflect views from traders and the border industry, gathered through last year’s Call for Evidence: An Independent Customs Regime, and go further in proposing new areas for reform within the customs system.

They will support the UK’s competitiveness and promote economic growth by making importing and exporting as easy as possible for traders, complementing wider transformational changes at the border that the government has committed to delivering.

Further detail on each Budget measure is set out below.

The government plans to engage with stakeholders on each of these measures in the coming months. The timetable for this engagement also takes into account the existing systems changes, for example the final phase of transition to the Customs Declaration Service (CDS) and the first strategic release of the UK Single Trade Window (STW), that the government is conscious stakeholders are already committed to implementing later this year. This is to ensure there is sufficient lead in time for stakeholders to adapt their own systems ahead of any policy changes coming into force.

Simplifying customs declarations requirements review

The government is reviewing customs declarations requirements and will engage stakeholders on this work later in the year. This review will assess the potential scope for simplifications to customs declarations requirements that could be delivered while ensuring that declarations continue to facilitate the essential functions of the UK’s customs system.

The review will cover both simplified and standard customs declarations, for both imports and exports. It will have a particular focus on export declarations, as well as on ensuring that customs declarations do not impose disproportionate burdens on small and less experienced UK businesses.

Simplified Customs Declaration Process improvements

In direct response to stakeholder input to the 2022 Call for Evidence: An Independent Customs Regime, the government is today (15 March 2023) announcing its intention to deliver a number of improvements to Simplified Customs Declaration Process (SCDP). These are:

• increasing the amount of time traders have to submit their supplementary declaration for imports and exports (in the case of exports where it relates to more than one consignment of goods) from the fourth working day of the month to the 10th calendar day of the month
• increasing the amount of time traders have to submit their final supplementary declarations from the fourth working day of the month to the 11th calendar day of the month
• allowing traders to submit one supplementary declaration for goods imported over the course of a month (known as aggregation), reducing the total number of declarations that have to be submitted

The government will work with stakeholders separately to set out the timeframes for delivery.

Consultation announcement: Introducing voluntary standards for customs intermediaries

The government will consult in Summer 2023 on introducing a voluntary standard for customs intermediaries, with the aim of improving the overall quality of service provided across the sector. This follows feedback received as part of the 2022 Call for Evidence: An Independent Customs Regime, which indicated that quality varies across the customs intermediary market.

Transit policy simplifications

Following the 2022 Call for Evidence: An Independent Customs Regime, the government is now planning a package of measures to simplify the transit facilitation. These measures will improve processes for both outbound and inbound movements in response to user feedback. They also improve the offer to authorised consignee/consignors. Proposals under development include those that follow.

For outbound movements:

• making it easier for authorised consignors to start a movement at a client’s premises by replacing the current paper-based approval process with a digital notification process
• reducing costs for authorised consignors by making a 100% guarantee waiver the default position during the authorisation process and signposting applicants to possibility of operating without a financial guarantee in place
• clarifying how authorised consignors can start a transit movement from their (or their client’s) premises when exporting goods from standard export ports

For inbound movements:

• modernising the unloading process for authorised consignees
• clarifying how to end a transit movement when loading goods on ships, trains and planes that are destined for their stores, and simplifying the export declaration requirements in these cases

Engagement with industry on these proposals will take place in Summer 2023.

Modernising Authorisations

Authorisations are HMRC’s trusted trader schemes. Customs authorisations give businesses access to a range of facilitations that help them trade more easily and excise authorisations enable traders to produce, store and move excise goods, preventing fraud.

The Modernising Authorisations project will streamline and digitise the government’s customs and excise authorisation processes to improve HMRC’s offer to traders. HMRC will radically reduce the number of customs authorisations to make the new authorisations more facilitative.

There are currently 42 different customs authorisations which will be divided into 5 new authorisation groups: Authorised Economic Operator (AEO), Fiscal, Simplifications and Declarations, Transit, and Ports and Wharves. Excise authorisations will form another group. Traders will only have to make a single application to access all the facilitations within the group.

Modernising Authorisations will improve the HMRC authorisation offer for traders by:

• reducing the administrative burden and removing duplicative processes. The new system will take a ‘once and done’ approach to data collection, so traders will never have to submit the same information twice
• delivering wider trust benefits to traders. Authorisations will be more visible to traders making it easier for them to identify and access those authorisations which are most suitable for their needs. This will be delivered through granting simpler access to further authorisations and reusing authorisations data
• improving the authorisation application process. Modernising Authorisations will deliver a digital service that includes a self-serve portal where traders can apply for and manage their authorisations. This will replace paper applications and give traders real time updates. We will use new guidance in the application forms to support traders to apply for the authorisations they need more easily

The government will commence the next phase of engagement with industry on the Modernising Authorisations project in March. The project will move into delivery in the second half of 2023.

Changes to Customs Guarantees for Special Procedures, Temporary Storage and Duty Deferment

The government will engage with industry in Spring 2023 on potential changes to enable more traders to be authorised to use certain customs facilitations (Special Procedures, Temporary Storage and Duty Deferment) without a financial guarantee. This would remove the cost of providing a guarantee for more traders who use these facilitations to delay (or in certain circumstances relieve) payment of import duties.

The government removed the guarantee requirement for most traders in January 2021, taking advantage of the flexibility of being outside the EU, and is now considering further changes to enable more traders to use these facilitations without a guarantee and benefit from the associated cost saving.

Table: Stakeholder engagement timeline summary

Measure	Timeline for engagement	Type of engagement planned
Modernising Authorisations	Spring 2023 (the next phase of engagement commences in March 2023)	Informal engagement, including via existing stakeholder working groups
Changes to Customs Guarantees for Special Procedures, Temporary Storage and Duty Deferment	Spring 2023	Informal engagement, including via existing stakeholder working groups
Transit policy simplifications	Summer 2023	Informal engagement through a combination of webinars, round tables and one-to-one engagement
Consultation announcement: Introducing voluntary standards for customs intermediaries	Summer 2023	A public consultation hosted on GOV.UK inviting written responses
Simplifying customs declarations requirements review	Second half of 2023	Engagement with traders and the border industry through a combination of webinars, round tables and one-to-one engagement.

The government would also welcome expressions of interest. Please contact us to let us know, and please specify in your email which of these measures you are interested in.