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NEW/EXC. Back in real world. The UK is nowhere close to meeting the target for 50,000 customs agents it needs for #Brexit, and the govt. "misleading" about it - haulage, customs chiefs tell me. Stay with me briefly. It& #39;s mad. /1Thread https://www.ft.com/content/be64c437-3ef2-4290-bf30-4cd3a97aa870">https://www.ft.com/content/b...
The need for 50,000 officers is an industry estimate, but one recognised repeatedly by @michaelgove in Parliament. Here is @hilarybennmp asking Gove about it at Select Commitee on April 27 - he doesn& #39;t dispute the figure. /2
https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/366/committee-on-the-future-relationship-with-the-european-union/">https://committees.parliament.uk/committee...
https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/366/committee-on-the-future-relationship-with-the-european-union/">https://committees.parliament.uk/committee...
Why do we need so many? Well exact volumes are had to predict (because no data since we& #39;ve not been doing customs with EU) but @NAOorguk estimate is an additional 200m declarations, with 140,000+ companies doing it for first time. /3 https://www.nao.org.uk/report/the-customs-declaration-service-a-progress-update/">https://www.nao.org.uk/report/th...
So how many of the additional 50,000 customs agents have been trained?
Hard to know exactly, but Robert Keen @BIFA_DG the head of Bifa, the UK& #39;s main trainer of customs agents wrote to @hilarybennmp on April 11 to say he& #39;d trained 1,298 last year! /4
Hard to know exactly, but Robert Keen @BIFA_DG the head of Bifa, the UK& #39;s main trainer of customs agents wrote to @hilarybennmp on April 11 to say he& #39;d trained 1,298 last year! /4
Separately the new Online Customs Academy set up last Sept with part of a £34m grant put aside by Govt for training has done 870 courses. I am told by @marco4gione that enrolment is 300% up this year - great, but we& #39;re still WAY short. /5 https://www.ukcustomsacademy.co.uk/ ">https://www.ukcustomsacademy.co.uk/">...
. @michaelgove also said that he was in discussions with industry to build a new customs academy - apparently earmarked for Kent - but Mr Keen told Mr Benn as far as he knows it was just an "informal comment" /6
I asked @cabinetofficeuk for any info - funding, timelines, locations, investment and construction targets etc. They declined to produce any additional information, just this statement. /7
In his evidence to @hilarybennmp Mr Gove promised to update the committee with "the uptake and the additional number" of customs agents trained. As of last Friday, nearly a month after giving evidence, am told Committee has no reply to its request for info. /8
. @HywelPlaidCymru Hywell Williams asked @Jesse_Norman the Financial Secretary to the Treasury a similar question. He got no numbers either/9
https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2020-05-04/42917/">https://www.parliament.uk/business/...
https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2020-05-04/42917/">https://www.parliament.uk/business/...
It takes a year to train a customs agent to the point where they can do routine forms - per @BIFA_DG Robert Keen. These forms are complex. And if you get them wrong, you cause delays - and cost and embarrassment to businesses/10
You& #39;ll have spotted the gap there. It& #39;s six months to Brexit day, more or less, so we don& #39;t have a year. Nor are we close to training 50,000 additional officers. Which is industry is starting to complain/warn of the trouble ahead. /11
Here& #39;s what Road Haulage Association boss Richard Burnett said @RHARichardB - "impossible" and Shane Brennan boss of Cold Chain Federation @ColdChainShane told me, citing "wilful ignorance" of politicians. /12
Mr Keen warns @hilarybennmp of the "potentially misleading and ambiguous" comments being made by politicians on the state of readiness. /13
