The government is delaying the rollout of the digital platform hailed as the crown jewel of post-Brexit trade.
The Treasury has announced a pause to the Single Trade Window (STW) programme for the financial year of 2025/26 amid concerns the software – originally meant to go live before the end of this year but plagued by IT glitches and delays – was becoming too expensive.
HMRC had recently said that the first stage of the platform – designed as a single destination where importers and exporters could submit all their trade paperwork to optimise border controls – was being trialled by select users.
But James Murray, the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, confirmed in a statement Tuesday that the delivery of the new system would be paused.
“The government is considering its future plans for the border and how best to meet the needs of its users. In the context of financial challenges, the government is pausing delivery of the UK Single Trade Window in 2025/26,” he said.
“As part of its efforts to support businesses trading across the UK border, the government will consider the role of the Single Trade Window and will provide an update as part of the next phase of the spending review, reporting in late spring 2025.”
The programme rollout “clearly fell victim of the budget spending cuts”, said Stephen Bartlett, chairman at the Association of Freight Software Suppliers.
“We welcome their plans to re-engage with us in the future. We must create a STW which will make the border process simpler and faster using data more efficiently, and be of benefit to the wider trade, rather than just a few.”
Marco Forgione, director general of the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade, said the pause on the Single Trade Window “can be used as an opportunity for the new government to work closely with industry and businesses to ensure that the right digital solutions are provided”.
“There is now also an opportunity to use the time to raise better awareness among businesses of the benefits of trade digitalisation and to educate them on how to make the most of these.”
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The STW live-date delay will come as little surprise to most in the industry as government announced last month it was postponing the need for new safety and security declarations on EU imports from October 2024 to January 2025 amid concerns the technology was not ready.
A previous report by the National Audit Office (NAO) had warned that the government underestimated the complexity of the programme and how costly it would be.
NAO revealed the platform’s core technology, managed by Deloitte and IBM, was “several months” behind schedule, and forecast government spend to implement border arrangements and improve trade performance would reach nearly £5bn due to constant IT glitches and delays.
The UK’s new Labour government was planning to negotiate a veterinary agreement with the EU, which would align safety and biosecurity standards across both markets and largely reduce the need for checks on EU food imports altogether.
Nevertheless, imports from the rest of the world still face strict controls and the Single Trade Window aimed to cut admin burden for all traders moving goods into the UK.
“There has been a lot of good work done in recent years to develop new digital solutions to simplifying cross-border trade, which the Chartered Institute has been spearheading,” Forgione said. “It is essential that the Single Trade Window delivers for business here, in the EU, and the rest of the world.”
An HMRC spokesperson said: “Development of the Single Trade Window (STW) for the 2025 to 2026 financial year has been paused as part of the Spending Review Settlement.
“This will enable consideration of how digital tools and the work done on STW to date can support our border priorities and ensure the greatest impact on trader experience.
“In the meantime, the first strategic release of STW functionality, including the user interface for Safety and Security, will not be launched this year.”
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