The UK government published its 2025 UK Border Strategy in December 2020, setting out its vision for the UK border to become the most effective in the world. Within that strategy was the proposal for a Single Trade Window (STW) to create a single gateway for all transactional data from traders into government. This was described as a “tell us once, in one place” system.

To enable the delivery of the STW, the government will need to make changes to legislation. As a result, it launched the consultation, The UK Single Trade Window: Consultation on Features to Inform Design and Legislation, on 21 July 2022.

The ambition is that, through the STW, organisations will be able to:

• make use of a simplified user experience to manage international trade;
• be guided through every stage of trade;
• provide data once, in a single place, to satisfy all trade obligations, including import, export, safety and security, and transit obligations;
  
• manage all licences, permits and authorisations in one place;
  
• have full visibility of current and historic trades; and
  
• make use of supply chain data to provide data to the government in a less burdensome way.
  

The consultation is seeking views on four key areas:

1. collection, use and sharing of data within government to support prepopulation and multi-filing;
2. enabling government visibility and use of supply chain data;
3. facilitating trade through targeted international data sharing; and
4. transitioning to the STW as the sole point of entry to government systems (including appropriate timescales).

The consultation is open for feedback until 15 September 2022. ICAEW’s Tax Faculty intends to respond to this consultation and welcomes feedback from ICAEW members. Any comments should be emailed to ed.saltmarsh@icaew.com by 2 September 2022. 

Read the consultation in full: The UK Single Trade Window: Consultation on Features to Inform Design and Legislation.