Lorry drivers will face de-facto Brexit border in
Kent, Gove confirms
Drivers will need ‘Kent access permit’ to get into UK
from 1 January, Gove tells Commons
Lisa
O'Carroll Brexit correspondent
@lisaocarroll
Wed 23 Sep
2020 16.15 BST
A de-facto Brexit border is to be introduced for lorry
drivers entering Kent from the EU, Michael Gove has confirmed.
The
minister for the Cabinet Office and chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster told
the Commons that lorry drivers would need a “Kent access permit” to get into
the county from 1 January with “police and ANPR cameras [automatic number plate
recognition]” enforcing the system.
The KAP has
been considered inside Whitehall for some time as a means of averting traffic
chaos in the county, but this is the first time it has been confirmed by the
government as an operational plan for next January.
According
to a leaked border delivery document seen by the Guardian, the scheme was due
to be approved last week at a meeting of the exit operating committee, chaired
by Gove.
“We want to
make sure that people use a relatively simple process in order to get what will
become known as a Kent access permit,” he told parliament.
“If they
don’t have the material required, then it will be the case that through
policing, ANPR cameras and other means, we will do our very best to ensure that
… constituents [in Kent] are not inconvenienced,” he added.
Under
government plans revealed in a leaked document, KAPs will be issued only to
drivers who have completed all the paperwork necessary to board a ferry or
Eurotunnel train to Calais.
According
to the document seen by the Guardian last week, the KAP system “is proposed to
be enforced in Kent with a £300 [fine] for port-bound HGVs that travel without
a Kent access permit”.
The
government has not said how it will enforce the KAP. Earlier this week, the
Labour MP Angela Eagle asked: “Who’s going to be patrolling the Kent borders to
make sure that no lorry goes into Kent if it hasn’t got that passport?
“Where are
the border posts for going into Kent going to be? It’s all very well saying we
are going to need it, but are we going to have Kent border police or border
guards?” she asked at the Treasury select committee on Tuesday.
Industry
leaders have also been concerned. One said it would need physical checks to
“weed out” those with a KAP and those without, which was a non-starter in their
view.
On Tuesday,
Gove wrote to hauliers to warn that if they do not prepare now for Brexit they
could face queues of up to 7,000 trucks in Kent, confirming internal cabinet
analysis of the potential disruption caused by the UK’s departure from the
single market in January.
The Road
Haulage Association chief executive, Richard Burnett, said the industry
“already knows” there will be queues in Kent as it had been pressing the
government to take action for months.
He
expressed fury that the government was trying to shift blame on to the
industry.
“Mr Gove
stresses that it’s essential that traders act now to get ready for new the
formalities. We know for a fact that they are only too keen to be ready but how
on earth can they prepare when there is still no clarity as to what they need
to do?” said Burnett.
The letter
from Gove also warns of two-day delays for cargo travelling to the EU through
Dover or Folkestone ferry or Eurotunnel trains in what it is describing as the
“reasonable worst-case scenario”.
“The
biggest potential cause of disruption are traders not being ready for controls
implemented by EU member states on 1 January 2021,” Gove wrote in the letter
seen by the Guardian. “It is essential that traders act now and get ready for
new formalities.”
The letter
has enraged industry leaders and the haulage industry, which has been begging
for details of the preparations they will have to make as a matter of urgency
for the last six months.
It came the
day both Logistics UK, which represents the freight industry, and the Port of
Dover said the government’s efforts to shift blame for lack of Brexit
preparations on to the industry was wrong-headed.
Tim
Reardon, the head of EU exit policy, told the Treasury select committee that
government funds had yet to be released for vital infrastructure at Dover port.
The money
needed to be “issued rather than talked about”, he said.
The chair
of the committee, the Conservative MP Mel Stride, said the government appeared
to be leaving it “incredibly tight” and questioned why “in the latter part of
September” there was still “talk about money being available for spades in the
ground”.
In his
letter, Gove said: “Irrespective of the outcome of negotiations between the UK
and EU, traders will face new customs controls and processes. Simply put, if
traders, both in the UK and EU, have not completed the right paperwork, their
goods will be stopped when entering the EU and disruption will occur.
“It is
essential that traders act now and get ready for new formalities.”
But sector
chiefs have accused the government of failing to do enough in recent weeks over
the threat of post-Brexit border delays.
The Road
Haulage Association (RHA), meanwhile, said its meeting on Thursday with Gove
was a “waste of time” as it did not engage with the detailed actions needed to
be taken.
Responding
to the worst-case scenario document, the RHA chief executive, Richard Burnett,
said: “We’ve been consistently warning the government there will be delays at
ports but they’re just not engaging with industry on coming up with solutions.
“Traders
need 50,000 more customs intermediaries to handle the mountain of new paperwork
after transition but government support to recruit and train those extra people
is woefully inadequate.
“The
answers to the questions that we raised in our letter to Mr Gove and subsequent
roundtable meeting last Thursday still remain unanswered – and our concern
continues to grow.”
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