HMRC has announced that it is changing the way imports are handled at a pair of key checkpoints in England and Wales.
In an email late last week to the Joint Consultative Customs Committee (JCCC), the government agency announced it would be changing the customs infrastructure at both the Sevington and Holyhead Inland Border Facilities (IBF).
HMRC’s planned measures mean these sites will be run commercially, rather than by the government, for the first time since Brexit.
Additionally, traders using Sevington IBF are also advised to prepare for a possible location change for where customs checks are carried out.
IBF explained
In the aftermath of Brexit, the government announced the development and construction of a number of IBFs to help with increased border checks, funded by the public purse.
Currently, only two IBFs remain in service: one in Sevington, Kent, and another in Holyhead, Wales. The Sevington site covers traffic from both the Eurotunnel and Dover, two of the busiest border crossings in the UK.
The two sites covered a combined 23.23m tonnes of freight traffic last year alone, almost exclusively from the EU and using roll-on, roll-of freight services.
Change of scheme
In an email late last week to the Joint Consultative Customs Committee (JCCC), HMRC said that the customs checks undertaken at both the Sevington and Holyhead IBFs are expected to “transition to alternative locations” from early 2027.
An official start date and exact location are expected to be announced closer to the time.
The government said that the changes will have a “significant impact” on three ports: the Kent sites of Eurotunnel and Dover, and Holyhead in North Wales.
What should I do?
In the short-term, there are no changes to existing processes or requirements for international traders. Customers are being advised that they should continue using the facilities at Sevington and Holyhead exactly as they do now.
For Sevington, HMRC told traders that, from the 2027 transition date, they will need to use either:
· Facilities provided at the alternatives border locations
· The services of an authorised consignor/consignee
· The transit simplification process to start or end a transit movement
The JCCC and HMRC are encouraging anyone who has been impacted by the changes to reach out to “relevant operators” (Port of Dover and Getlink Customs Services for Folkestone and Eurotunnel) during the transition period, as the operators of these border locations are “best placed to provide information on how their services and facilities will operate” as the plans develop.
The Sevington facility also contains a Border Control Post (BCP) where sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) checks take place on many food and animal-origin goods. These checks are covered by a Common User Charge, and the services will continue to be provided on the current basis for now.
Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade technical director Anna Doherty said that more details need to be clarified, including the current status of the EU-UK reset, the timelines involved and what kind of transition period is being planned.
Doherty said it was likely that “some form of SPS checks may still be necessary”.
“However, it will not be to the same capacity as currently handled at Sevington.”
She added:
“There is also a risk that, if you have a consignment subject to customs checks, it would need to first be presented at Folkestone or the Port of Dover, and then moved to Sevington for SPS checks while that site is still operational.”
Policy background
HMRC said that the IBFs were a “temporary measure”, introduced after Brexit, and it had always been intended that the government would “transition” to a different operational model.
A proposed Port of Dover IBF was cancelled in June 2022, with HMRC and the transport department claiming that “existing facilities have enough capacity to deal with the flow of traffic”. The government also announced that a pair of interim sites in Birmingham and North Weald were to be closed ahead of schedule.
In late July of this year, HMRC published a policy paper outlining changes to port approval legislation. The changes would amend existing powers that HMRC has to approve ports and apply approval conditions, notably requiring ports that don’t have sufficient space to identify offsite locations for customs checks.
“This will level the playing field between ports while ensuring the checks on goods necessary to protect the UK can continue to take place,” HMRC said.
The government says that this means ports that currently benefit from government-funded customs infrastructure will become responsible for providing this infrastructure themselves, “in line with the longstanding model used at all other ports.”
HMRC said in the policy paper that this had always been its plan, pointing to the final version of the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM), which detailed the steps the government was taking to provide these services on a commercial basis rather than using public funding.
