Trader Support Service
HMRC's Trader Support Service alpha assessment report
Trader Support Service
| Assessment date: | 23 April 2026 |
| Stage: | Alpha |
| Type: | Assessment |
| Result: | Amber |
| Service provider: | HMRC |
Service description
Trader Support Service (TSS) is an established, free‑to‑use government service that supports traders and carriers moving goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, helping them to meet the requirements of the Windsor Framework, previously known as the Northern Ireland Protocol arrangements.
The service underpins most freight movements between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and to a lesser extent between Northern Ireland and Great Britain and is critical to maintaining compliant trade flows.
Problem to be solved:
The next iteration of TSS is built on a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solution, ERMIS, which is a flexible and configurable platform and aims to improve known problems for users, compliance, and HMRC including:
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streamlining user journeys
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accessibility compliance to WCAG 2.2 AA
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reducing complex content and guidance
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increasing the accuracy of submissions
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incorporating new regulations
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reducing cost by improving front end and reducing the strain on contact centre support
Service users
This service is for:
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Micro, Small, Medium and Large traders (importers and exporters)
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Customs intermediaries
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Customer support agents
Things the service team has done well:
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The Trader Support Service team outlined a carefully considered architecture composed of appropriate, widely deployed technologies, extending the chosen COTS product with bespoke frontend applications to meet the needs of their users.
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The Performance Analyst demonstrated how data will be generated and how this information will be used to iterate the service, based on insights gathered from customer and user interactions with the service.
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The service team has plans in place to ensure that user research directly informs the key performance indicators, providing assurance that user needs are being met and that user research effectively complements and supports the Traders Support Service metrics.
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The team took a considered approach to naming the service, using user research to align terminology with users’ mental models. Updates to the design to align with GDS standards and improvements in the content show clear intent to reduce cognitive load and improve clarity.
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The service team is comprised of the appropriate skills and expertise required for the alpha phase of the service’s development and has access to the specialist expertise it needs from both within HMRC and external organisations.
1. Understand users and their needs
Decision
The service was rated amber for point 1 of the Standard.
This is amber because:
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For third-party contractual reasons made clear during the assessment, the service team currently has little information about those core users who rely on support from the contact centres, the underlying reasons for these dependencies and how their needs are met by these external support centres.
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This data is critical to understand the entirety of end-users’ met and unmet needs. Until this information is accessed during private Beta, the team is relying on incomplete knowledge and assumptions about service centre users whilst developing the prototype solution.
2. Solve a whole problem for users
Decision
The service was rated amber for point 2 of the Standard.
This is amber because:
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There was limited evidence that the team had explored alternative ways to meet the full user need beyond improving the existing service
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There was limited explanation for why additional helpful information was introduced mid-journey and how this decision was made
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The team showed a good understanding of the wider user journey and service landscape, but it was unclear how they were working with external bodies to provide a joined-up experience
3. Provide a joined-up experience across all channels
Decision
The service was rated green for point 3 of the Standard.
Advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
- The team is working with other teams to consider and test online and offline journeys together. As the digital service develops, the team is mindful of not introducing barriers for users who rely on offline channels. The team is exploring opportunities to integrate with related services, including customs services that new users may need to access.
4. Make the service simple to use
Decision
The service was rated amber for point 4 of the Standard.
This is amber because:
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The guidance content positioned mid-journey may limit users’ understanding of the service, particularly for those with low digital literacy, contributing to continued reliance on support centres
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During the assessment, the prototype presented contained several acronyms that were neither written out in full nor explained. It appeared that the service team assumed that new users and customers of the Trader Support Service would be familiar with and understand these acronyms. To improve the user and customer experience on the Trader Support Service, acronyms should be clearly written out in full and explained, to support ease of understanding of the information presented on the website.
5. Make sure everyone can use the service
Decision
The service was rated amber for point 5 of the Standard.
This is amber because:
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The team outlined constraints around testing with users with access needs and is now working with a specialist third part to support future accessibility research. However, the panel saw limited evidence of testing with users who rely on assistive technology.
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The team should ensure future research recruitment consistently includes users with access needs and those using assistive technology
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An accessibility audit is planned for June, after which findings should be actioned to address any issues and reduce the risk of excluding existing or potential users
6. Have a multidisciplinary team
Decision
The service was rated green for point 6 of the Standard.
7. Use agile ways of working
Decision
The service was rated green for point 7 of the Standard.
Advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
- Make sure the agile Business Analyst is writing backlog items fully and with clarity. This will benefit ways of working for the whole team throughout the rest of delivery.
8. Iterate and improve frequently
Decision
The service was rated green for point 8 of the Standard.
Advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
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The team should continue to update guidance using user feedback alongside GOV.UK content and style guidance to ensure clarity and consistency
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The team should build on the effective use of established content patterns to help the user understand complex information in the journey and maintain close collaboration with policy and legal colleagues to further streamline the journey and remove unnecessary friction
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Ongoing user feedback should remain embedded in design and content decisions to support continuous improvement of the service
9. Create a secure service which protects users’ privacy
Decision
The service was rated green for point 9 of the Standard.
Advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
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It is recommended the team makes targeted use of client-side encryption within the service. This is because the service will store not only personally identifiable and commercially sensitive information, but also authentication tokens.
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It is recommended the team complete an exercise in conjunction with their security risk assessor to evaluate each data point stored by the service for sensitivity and potential for misuse by attackers. This will help the team to identify which data points should be encrypted using client-side encryption.
10. Define what success looks like and publish performance data
Decision
The service was rated green for point 10 of the Standard.
11. Choose the right tools and technology
Decision
The service was rated green for point 11 of the Standard.
Advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
- It is recommended the team prioritise the integration with GOV.UK One Login. This will expose any difficulties with the integration early and improve the experience of users registering with the service. One Login does not prevent individuals from registering multiple accounts, so users can maintain separate accounts for personal use.
12. Make new source code open
Decision
The service was rated green for point 12 of the Standard.
Advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
- It is recommended the team should open-source code for the bespoke parts of the service.
13. Use and contribute to open standards, common components and patterns
Decision
The service was rated green for point 13 of the Standard.
Advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
- It is recommended the team contribute any reusable components developed while delivering the service to the GOV.UK Design System or HMRC Design Resources.
14. Operate a reliable service
Decision
The service was rated green for point 14 of the Standard.
Advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
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It is recommended that the team engage with HMRC’s Customer Experience & Bridge Operations team (CE&BO) to establish how the service will coordinate with the wider HMRC estate on outages, incident response and planned downtime.
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It is recommended the service enters private beta, plans are in place to carry out annual internal security assessments and external IT health check security audits are carried out. This will help safeguard the service’s security and reliability and ensure it continues to meet users’ expectations and requirements.
Next Steps
Amber
This service can now move into a private beta phase, subject to addressing the amber points within three months’ time.
To get the service ready to launch on GOV.UK the team needs to:
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work with the GOV.UK content team on any changes required to GOV.UK content