HMRC says it is looking for guidance from businesses as it looks to reshape one of the UK’s future border trade tools, the Single Trade Window (STW).
The government announced in 2024 that it was pausing development on the STW in 2025 and 2026, with freedom of information requests later finding that no staff time or spending had been allocated to the project since.
However, now the government says it is looking to deliver “real value to businesses” by continuing to develop the digital gateway. Businesses have until 3 June to submit their views on the STW, which is a single digital gateway through which all information needed to import and export goods can be submitted once.
Resuming project
“As you may be aware, the Government paused the delivery of the STW in November last year,” HMRC said in an email.
“Our internal policy development has continued, with a particular focus on ensuring that any updates to the system deliver real value to businesses and strengthen the UK’s border processes.”
HMRC says it has now entered a phase of “active engagement” with industry and is looking for more input from business to help it understand the problems facing border trade.
There is a particular desire for understanding views on current issues with government border systems, particularly with duplicated data, areas where systems or processes cause “friction”, or aspects that add “cost or complexity”.
The government also wants views on the EU’s recently-announced plans for an EU Customs Data Hub.
HMRC says it is aware that the government is still evolving various systems post-Brexit and is “keen to understand where the biggest challenges are for stakeholders and what they would want to prioritise at the border.”
As well as the survey, which can be accessed here, individual sessions can be arranged. The final deadline for feedback is Wednesday (3 June).
Previous plans
The previous Conservative administration initially trailed that it intended to develop such a system for the UK when releasing its ‘2025 Border Strategy’ in 2020.
It then announced a consultation into the design of the system in 2022, before introducing its plans to build the system in 2023 for release in 2024.
The first strategic release to the public was scheduled to include an interface for handling the upcoming introduction of safety and security declarations for EU imports.
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