Preparing for trade negotiations
This briefing sets out government’s plans and progress to date in opening up overseas markets to UK businesses.
17 May 2019
This briefing sets out government’s plans and progress to date in opening up overseas markets to UK businesses.
This an update on earlier reports by the NAO and Committee of Public Accounts on the progress of the Common Agricultural Policy Delivery Programme. It focuses primarily on the 2015 Basic Payment Scheme payments to English farmers and landowners and improvements to the process for the 2016 and future years.
The St Helena airport’s planned opening date in May 2016 has been postponed as outstanding safety concerns are addressed, potentially adding to the project’s cost and delaying its benefits.
The new directorates that replaced the former UKBA have made progress in some areas but not across the whole business.
The Department for International Development’s spending on humanitarian interventions has almost trebled between 2010-11 and 2014-15 to more than £1 billion per year, rising as a share of its total budget from 6% to 14%.
The FCO did well in 2009-10 in quickly bringing its expenditure down to within its budget. However, measurement and evaluation were limited. The FCO’s approach to cost reduction must now be fully strategic and sustainable. It will be vital to avoid damaging value for money through over-simplistic cuts.
The FCO and UKTI will need to contribute much more effectively to efforts to increase the value of UK exports to £1 trillion a year by 2020.
This memorandum supports the Committee of Public Accounts’ inquiry into the award of the contracts by the Department for Transport.
HMRC has made progress in developing the new customs system, which was part of its existing programme, but it may need to be ready much earlier than originally planned if there is no agreement extending timescales on the transition to any new customs arrangements
This report provides an update on HMRC’s progress with the Customs Declaration Service (CDS) since July 2017. We consider the deliverability of the CDS programme and highlight the risks and issues HMRC needs to manage to fully implement CDS by January 2019.