Corporate report

Accounting Officer assessment summary - Single Trade Window Programme

Updated 7 June 2023

It is normal practice for Accounting Officers to scrutinise significant policy proposals or plans of major projects, and then assess whether they measure up to the standards set out in Managing Public Money. The UK government has committed to make a summary of the key points from these assessments available to Parliament when an accounting officer has agreed an assessment of projects within the Government’s Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP). This is an updated summary assessment. The first assessment was produced in December 2022.

Background and context

In December 2020, the UK Government published its 2025 Border Strategy. Central to this strategy is the delivery of a UK Single Trade Window (STW); a single digital gateway at the UK border for traders to complete their import, export and transit obligations. The STW will save traders time and money by reducing the significant duplicative effort that is currently required to move goods across the UK border and reduce barriers to entry to international trade by simplifying the trader experience. It will also enhance delivery of government services and compliance activity at the border, by improving the quality and accessibility of information that departments use to make decisions about where, and how, they intervene.

In January 2022, having received funding of £180 million over the Spending Review 21 period, the STW programme moved from Cabinet Office to HMRC. Accounting Officer responsibility rests within HMRC, but STW is very much a cross-government delivery, with HMRC working with partner organisations across government to realise the ambition set out in the Border Strategy.

Clear governance processes have been established for effective programme management. As part of the GMPP, the programme reports quarterly to the Infrastructure Projects Authority (IPA) on progress. An assessment of the programme’s progress will be published in the GMPP transparency report.

When the first assessment was produced, the programme was approved to launch a procurement for a technical delivery partner (TDP) and it was planned to undertake another assessment when the results of that procurement were known, the business case had been updated, and delivery risks re-assessed.

Regularity

The STW programme’s mandate comes from the government’s commitment to transform the UK Border as set out in the 2025 Border Strategy. The programme has a key dependency on new primary legislation, led by Cabinet Office, to grant HMRC the ability to collect and share data via the STW with departments who require it, and for HMRC’s ability to spend money to build related capability for that data sharing. Consequently, HMRC has prioritised its early spending on HMRC-specific functionality within the remit of existing legislation. Since December, secondary legislation has been prepared and laid on 17 April to provide the legal basis for spend on building cross-government features. Primary legislation will still needed in due course for the STW to be fully implemented.

Propriety

The programme’s activity is in line with the published 2025 Border Strategy and supports the government’s stated ambitions for a transformed border experience for users and government departments and agencies.

The programme has established a Programme Board and supporting governance structures, with membership from partner organisations across government that reflects the cross-departmental reach of the STW programme.

The programme received an amber rating from an IPA Gate 0 review in February 2023, with recommendations from that review being implemented.

Value for money

The programme follows The Green Book methodology, including HMT’s 5-case model. This involves developing a longlist of options and conducting an appraisal to draw up a shortlist before completing a full economic appraisal of the shortlisted options. Value for money is recognised as a key factor in the commercial strategy within the programme business case approved by HMT and endorsed by partner departments as part of the Spending Review 21 process.

The programme is following established government practice and working with the Government Commercial Function to drive value for money throughout procurement processes, running competition for supplier procurement through established commercial frameworks.

The positive economic impact of STW on the UK economy is clearly set out in the 2025 Border Strategy. The economic benefits from STW will be felt in three areas: the reduction of duplicative time and cost expended by users of border processes, more efficient process and decision making across government, and the positive inward growth by increasing ease of doing business across the UK border. Further work to refine costs and benefits in the latest business case show that a fully implemented STW would represent VFM with benefits, mostly economic, of around £1.9 billion over ten years assessed against whole lifecycle costs of around £330 million. In the absence of new legislation to enable collection and sharing of data between departments, a narrower release of STW, limited to existing HMRC functions, would still offer the prospect of about half of those benefits. Therefore, implementation of HMRC-specific functionality would still offer value for money, notwithstanding that the strategic ambition is to release full cross-HMG functionality and gain the higher benefits offered by that.

Feasibility

The programme leadership, supported by delivery partners, has the skills and experience needed to achieve the programme deliverables within the required timeframe. And the procurement for a technical delivery partner has showed the feasibility of building and running the service as desired. While the primary legislation needed to enable implementation of the full range of cross-departmental functionality has not yet been laid in Parliament pending that legislation coming into effect, the programme is able to build and release STW functionality covered by HMRC’s existing functions and do preparatory work on building the cross-government functionality.

The programme is subject to the requirements of the Government Major Projects Portfolio and undergoes independent reviews by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority. The programme was assessed as Amber in an IPA review in February 2023.

Conclusion

On balance the four Accounting Officer tests are satisfied. The Regularity test is met as expenditure approved for 2023 is related to HMRC functions and a Statutory Instrument due to come into force in early May will enable preparatory spend on non-HMRC functions. However primary legislation will need to in force for HMRC to implement the full STW solution and realise the full government ambition. Both the full STW solution, and a narrower release limited to existing HMRC functions, notwithstanding the full government ambition, currently represent value for money. The position will next be reviewed in November 2023.

As the Accounting Officer for HMRC I have considered my assessment of the Single Trade Window and on balance, the proposal is value for money and deliverable. I have therefore approved it as of 19 April 2023. I have prepared this summary to set out the key points which informed my decision. If any of these factors change materially during the lifetime of this programme, I undertake to prepare a revised summary, setting out my assessment of them. The summary will be published on the GOV.UK. Copies will be deposited in the Library of the House of Commons and sent to the Comptroller and Auditor General and Treasury Officer of Accounts.

Accounting Officer’s name: Jim Harra, Chief Executive HMRC.

Signature:

Date of signing: 19 April 2023