Progress of the new customs declaration service

KEYPOINTS

• The new customs duty service was commissioned before the EU referendum.
• Originally designed to deliver 60 million clearances a year it now may have to provide 255 million.
• The service will go live in August but with limited functionality.
• Will businesses’ software be able to cope with the changes?

HMRC is in the final year of its programme to replace its ageing customs declaration system CHIEF (customs handling of import and export freight) with the new customs declaration service (CDS). The project to implement CDS was commissioned before the EU referendum but the UK’s decision to leave the single market and in all likelihood the customs union too has important implications for the programme. The National Audit Office (NAO) has been monitoring progress to date and has recently...