Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 27
27
Departments’ track record delivering IT projects is particularly relevant given that HMRC is still working...
Conclusion
Departments’ track record delivering IT projects is particularly relevant given that HMRC is still working on replacing its CHIEF customs system with a new Customs Declaration Service (CDS). CDS was originally supposed to be in use by all UK traders in January 2019, but the project has been delayed and in 2020 HMRC extended its contract with Fujitsu to ensure the CHIEF system could be used for another five years, at a cost of £17 million a year. Dual running systems means HMRC has therefore had to carry out work to increase the capacity of both CDS and CHIEF to cope with the increase in declarations it expects following the UK’s exit from the EU.84 CDS now has the capability to process 200 million declarations a year and the main challenge HMRC now faces is transitioning all users from CHIEF to CDS. HMRC now plans to close CHIEF to import declarations in September 2022 and export declarations in March 2023, before turning off the system entirely in June 2023. However, by mid-October 2021, only 42 users out of a population of around 5,000 had migrated to CDS.85 HMRC told us it expected to see a big increase in the number of businesses migrating to CDS after January.86 The Northern Ireland Protocol
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
7: PAC conclusion: Government’s ambition for the UK to have the “world’s most effective border by 2025” relies on cross-government digital programmes, in which it does not have a good track record. 7: PAC recommendation: Government should write to the Committee, within six months, setting out the timetable for its planned programme of work to create the world’s most effective border by 2025, and the key risks it will need to manage in taking this forward. 7.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: October 2022 7.2 Delivery of the 2025 Border Strategy is well underway, and programmes and pilots will deliver tangible benefits to UK businesses over this year. The 2021 Spending Review committed to spend over £1 billion over the coming years on border transformation. Now long- term budgets for the major transformative programmes across government and industry have been confirmed, the government will work with industry to create a full transformation roadmap. 7.3 The Cabinet Office has worked with the Infrastructure and Projects Authority to design and implement cross-departmental governance structures that ensure strategy, design, delivery and performance are fully integrated across the border’s portfolio. This new governance structure has been proved effective over the past year as the government implemented import controls for goods being imported from the EU to the UK and will ensure delivery of the strategy continues to be coordinated effectively. 7.4 The government will continue to use best practice to manage delivery risks for major border transformation projects, for example, the UK Single Trade Window is part of the Government Major Projects Portfolio. 7.5 The government will write to the Committee by October 2022 to provide an update on this work and share the roadmap it has developed for transformation of the UK border.