The UK is pausing the development of the Single Trade Window, a digital border service that would have streamlined data relating to cross-border trade.

James Murray, the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, made a written statement to the House today (5 November) to confirm that the delivery of the new system will be paused in 2025 and 2026.

He said:
“The government is considering its future plans for the border and how best to meet the needs of its users. In the context of financial challenges, the government is pausing delivery of the UK Single Trade Window in 2025/26.

“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 UN Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business defines a single window as a “facility that allows parties involved in trade and transport to lodge standardised information and documents with a single entry point to fulfil all import, export, and transit-related regulatory requirements”.

The previous Conservative government initially trailed that it intended to develop such a system for the UK when releasing its ‘2025 Border Strategy’ in 2020.

It then announced a consultation into the design of the system in 2022, before introducing its plans to build the system in 2023 for release in 2024.

The first strategic release to the public was scheduled to include an interface for handling the upcoming introduction of safety and security declarations for EU imports, due in January next year. This has now also been put on hold.
There is ongoing work taking place in industry on the digitalisation of trade.

This includes the government-endorsed pilots of solutions to develop an ‘Ecosystem of Trust’ in trade that took place in 2022 and 2023, and a new series of ‘Border Trade Demonstrators’ which were announced towards the end of last year.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe, who was a Cabinet Office minister at the time, said these demonstrators were “specific projects” focused on overcoming problems identified by government and industry, “such as the complexity and time taken when integrating industry and government systems.”