UK to simplify post-Brexit border checks

The British government has outlined plans to simplify and speed up its post-Brexit border checks this week. The plans follow the delays the government has said were due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

The United Kingdom announced on Wednesday in a statement that the new plan for simplifying its post-Brexit border checks would be backed by $1.25 billion in spending and cut the need for physical checks on “many types of goods.” The statement added that the required checks would take place away from ports to prevent delays at the border. The UK, which left the European Union’s single market in 2021, delayed the full implementation of border controls several times over concerns of port disruption and the pandemic as well as the risk of worsening the rising cost of living.

“The Border Target Operating Model…sets out a new model for importing goods into the UK from countries inside and outside the EU,” said the government in its introduction of the draft plan. “It will move us closer to our goal of creating the most effective border in the world, by introducing an improved regime of sanitary, phytosanitary, and security controls on imports.”

The proposal includes a “single trade window” where traders are only required to submit information once and in one place. This is expected to be in operation by 2027.

The government noted that the arrangements for goods moving into Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK would follow the new post-Brexit trade deal between the UK and the bloc, called the Windsor Framework. None of the additional checks or controls in the new plan will apply to imports into Northern Ireland from the bloc, which will allow Northern Ireland traders access to the single market.

The government also said it would continue to coordinate with traders, ports, port health officials, logistics, transport, and technology companies in implementing the proposal.

On the same day, the government announced it leased a barge to house 500 migrants on the southern coast as part of efforts to reduce the use of hotels to accommodate migrants who enter the country on small boats as their asylum claims are processed. The barge, the Bibby Stockholm, will be at the Portland Port in Dorset and will accommodate 500 single adult males, according to the British interior ministry.

Migrants will be moved to the barge “in the coming months” and will be in operation for at least 18 months.