Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet
Office (): On 31 December last year, the UK left the EU’s Single
Market and Customs Union. This was the biggest change in the UK’s
trading relationships for decades. The Government has always been
clear that this meant change for business and for citizens,
including new processes and requirements.
The first phase of such changes came in on 1 January. The
Government has put in place the staffing, infrastructure, and IT
to deal with the situation. Thanks to the hard work of traders
and hauliers, we have not seen anything like the generalised
disruption at our ports which many predicted, and supply chains
have shown themselves to be robust.
However, the Government recognises the scale and significance of
the challenges businesses have been facing in adjusting to the
new requirements, at the same time as dealing with the impacts of
COVID.
Last June, we announced a timetable for the phased introduction
of controls on imports from the EU into Great Britain, to ensure
businesses could prepare in a phased way. This timetable was
based on the impacts of the first wave of COVID. We know now that
the disruption caused by COVID has lasted longer and has been
deeper than we anticipated. Accordingly, the Government has
reviewed these timeframes.
Although we recognise that many in the border industry and many
businesses have been investing time and energy to be ready on
time, and indeed we in Government were confident of being ready
on time, we have listened to businesses who have made a strong
case that they need more time to prepare. In reviewing the
timeframes, we have given strong weight to the disruption which
has been caused, and is still being caused, by COVID, and the
need to ensure that the economy can recover fully.
We are therefore announcing today a clear revised timetable for
the introduction of controls, as follows:
- Pre-notification requirements for Products of Animal Origin
(POAO), certain animal by-products (ABP), and High Risk Food Not
Of Animal Origin (HRFNAO) will not be required until 1 October
2021. Export Health Certificate requirements for POAO and certain
ABP will come into force on the same date.
- Customs import declarations will still be required, but the
option to use the deferred declaration scheme, including
submitting supplementary declarations up to six months after the
goods have been imported, has been extended to 1 January 2022.
- Safety and Security Declarations for imports will not be
required until 1 January 2022.
- Physical SPS checks for POAO, certain ABP, and HRFNAO will
not be required until 1 January 2022. At that point they will
take place at Border Control Posts.
- Physical SPS checks on high risk plants will take place at
Border Control Posts, rather than at the place of destination as
now, from 1 January 2022.
- Pre-notification requirements and documentary checks,
including phytosanitary certificates will be required for low
risk plants and plant products, and will be introduced from 1
January 2022.
- From March 2022, checks at Border Control Posts will take
place on live animals and low risk plants and plant products.
Traders moving controlled goods into Great Britain will continue
to be ineligible for the deferred customs declaration approach.
They will therefore be required to complete a full customs
declaration when the goods enter Great Britain.
Controls and checks on Sanitary and Phytosanitary goods are of
course a devolved matter and we continue to work closely with the
Devolved Administrations on their implementation, in particular
with the Welsh Government on their timetable for completing
supporting Border Control Post infrastructure in Wales.
We will continue to engage extensively with businesses to support
them to adjust to the new requirements already in place and to
prepare for the new requirements set out above so that they can
continue to trade successfully under the new arrangements.
