Contingency plans in place should new service underperform

HMRC has taken steps to mitigate risks in delivering the customs declaration service (CDS) programme raised by the National Audit Office (NAO) in July 2017. Significant challenges remain and there is a risk that the service will be unable to fully replace the customs handling of import and export freight (CHIEF) system by January 2019. However HMRC has developed contingency plans to put it in a better position if CDS is not ready or does not perform as planned or if traders have not migrated to the new system in time.

A follow-up report by the NAO recognises that HMRC has accelerated work on its contingency plans for handling customs declarations in the event of ‘no deal’ Brexit in March 2019. This should give the system capacity to handle customs declarations no matter the outcome of negotiations between the UK and the EU. The success of wider...