Britain’s Brexit border regime is delayed — again

LONDON — The U.K. has further delayed the rollout of its post-Brexit border regime amid concerns that the technology is not ready.

The scheme has already been beset with multiple delays following the U.K.’s departure from the EU in January 2021. Checks on animal and plant products coming into the country weren’t introduced until April this year and plans to extend the checks to fresh produce such as fruit and vegetables have now been pushed back to July 2025.

The British government had planned to introduce safety and security declarations for all imports as part of what’s known as the Border Target Operating Model on Oct. 31 this year. Concurrently, the government was also planning to roll out its Single Trade Window — a platform that allows importers and exporters to file all their paperwork digitally in a single place.

The “declarations will now be introduced on 31 January 2025,” a spokesperson for the U.K.’s customs authority HMRC told POLITICO. That means the U.K. will continue waving through goods coming from the EU without safety and security certificates for another three months.

Firms were told on Thursday of the delay at a meeting of the Joint Customs Consultative Committee — an HMRC forum made up of business and border groups.

The delay is “not a surprise,” a senior business representative briefed on the plans said. The government “hadn’t produced much in the way of guidance” about how the new STW system will work, they explained. With less than a month to go before the rollout “you would be expecting to see the guidance right now,” they said. 

“I’m not sure it has any wider political significance other than just the fact that the technology needs to be right,” they explained.

HMRC said the first release of the Single Trade Window functionality is currently in testing with selected users. The department is “listening to industry about the time it will take them to prepare” for the new regime, the spokesperson added.

‘Far too little information, far too late’

A second senior business representative said: “The government had no option but to delay as there has been a communication blackout hampering businesses’ ability to plan and prepare. 

“The entire BTOM experience to date for businesses had been one of far too little information, far too late. That must change.”

​​The technology “is not where it needs to be,” a third senior business representative confirmed.

Delaying the rollout of the Single Trade Window is “a sensible move,” they said. “It now gives time for calm conversation between U.K. and EU around the potential for alternative ways of creating assured trade between the U.K. and EU for SPS [sanitary and phytosanitary] goods.”

Britain’s new Labour government is planning to negotiate a veterinary — or SPS agreement — with the European Union, which would align U.K.-EU standards and potentially remove the need for checks on EU food imports altogether.

The government has also introduced new legislation which would give ministers the power to recognize EU product safety rules updated by the bloc since Britain’s departure.

“We will continue to engage closely with industry to ensure they are prepared for a smooth transition” to the new regime, the HMRC spokesperson added. “Businesses who are ready to start submitting S&S declarations before the introduction date are welcome to do so.”