Government presses pause on Single Trade Window project

The government has decided to delay the roll-out of the UK Single Trade Window (STW) until April 2026 at the earliest.

The STW project aims to allow users to provide the data they need to trade and give them the ability to apply for licences and authorisations for trusted trader schemes on the STW platform.

The government hopes the system will eliminate duplication and simplify data submissions by allowing traders to submit data once, which can be reused in other declarations.

However, the project, which began in 2023, has suffered from internal delays, rising costs and turmoil. It quickly fell behind the timetable set out in its original business case.

In March 2024, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) updated its business case, but it failed to include milestones and commit to delivering the STW.

In answer to a Parliamentary question, James Murray, the exchequer secretary to the Treasury, said the government is currently considering its future plans for the UK border and how to meet user needs.

“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 pause means the roll-out is unlikely to commence until after the end of the 2025/26 financial year.

The STW project is part of a larger UK border strategy, which has already been criticised by the National Audit Office (NAO) for lacking a clear timetable and making it difficult for industry to take part in the projects the programme relies on.

One of these projects is the STW, which is a fundamental element of the strategy. In a report in May 2024, the NAO criticised the project for failing to come up with a clear delivery roadmap for the programme, and warned that a 12-month delay in the roll-out could reduce benefits realised from the project by £866m over 10 years.

The government estimates that the STW programme will cost £349m, but deliver benefits of £2.48bn, including £250m as a result of better data collection and sharing.

The STW project has also faced supplier issues. Computer Weekly revealed in May 2024 that HMRC ended up in a formal dispute with its technical delivery partner, Deloitte, less than a year into the programme.

The programme struggled due to issues on both sides, which led to extra costs. However, the dispute has been resolved. At the time, HMRC told Computer Weekly that the government was still on track to deploy its first public release of the STW in October 2024, allowing users to make entry summary declarations for safety and security.

While the Cabinet Office is leading on the development of the system, it is a cross-government programme, with more than 25 government departments involved, and HMRC, together with its technical delivery partners Deloitte and IBM, is responsible for the delivery.