HMRC invites BIFA Members to take part in a questionnaire regarding the Single Trade Window (STW). Please see the below HMRC invite for more information.
As you may be aware, the Government paused the delivery of the STW in November last year. Our internal policy development has continued, with a particular focus on ensuring that any updates to the system deliver real value to businesses and strengthen the UK’s border processes.
We have now entered a phase of active engagement with industry and are eager to collect a broad range of views to inform the next stage of our policy development. Your input is invaluable to us, as the questionnaire seeks to understand your experience with current government systems—especially regarding duplicated data, areas where systems or processes cause friction, and aspects that add cost or complexity to your operations.
Alongside this, the European Union have also recently announced plans to build an EU Customs Data Hub to centralise and unify a large number of existing systems and deliver greater visibility across the supply chain. We’re actively thinking about their ambitions here and would value any views you have on those plans as part of this engagement.
Your feedback will help us refine our understanding of the challenges that an STW could address, shaping future options and improvements. We appreciate your time and perspective.
We’re also cognisant that we’re still evolving our baseline systems post-Brexit and are aware of the importance of the developments of existing systems to industry. We are therefore keen to understand where the biggest challenges are for stakeholders and what they would want to prioritise at the border.
Finally, we are sure many of you were also engaged as part of the previous STW programme, and other Government-Industry engagement. That detail has proved extremely helpful in our thinking so far, and thank you again for the time you took to do that. We’ve been through the details of it and have a good sense of what you wanted an STW to do for you.
Obviously, that was a couple of years ago now, and lots has changed since then. A key aspect of this engagement will be to either validate or challenge that feedback – not merely repeat it. That idea is reflected in the questionnaire, but we’d really welcome any further views you have on if/how your views have changed.
Some of the questions asked may not be relevant to you, your business or your organisation. Please do not feel the need to answer every question.
We recognise that you may sit on more than one group or association and may consequently receive more than one of these requests. Only one response is necessary.
You may feel more comfortable or prefer to provide feedback verbally, please do let us know if that’s the case, and we can arrange a 1-1 session.
Please access the questionnaire using the link below:
It would be of great assistance if you could complete and submit this questionnaire by Wednesday, 3rd June 2026.
If you have any questions or require further information, do not hesitate to get in touch with:
- Jacob Cooke, Head of Customs Regime Strategy Implementation: jacob.cooke@hmrc.gov.uk
- Monica Saunders, Border Information & Single Trade Window Policy: monica.saunders@hmrc.gov.uk
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