Technical Spotlight on HMRC’s Joint Customs Consultative Committee

HMRC’s Joint Customs Consultative Committee (JCCC) is a forum held to discuss the procedures and documentation relating to moving goods across the UK’s border. Chaired by senior HMRC customs staff, it is attended by representatives from the freight and logistics sectors, industry, and professional and trade bodies. The CIOT has been a long-term member, with the ATT joining this year.

The purpose of the JCCC is to:

• act as a consultative group for the development of customs policy and processes, providing a key point for industry views to be considered by HMRC;
• understand the industry and regulatory impacts of any changes;
• provide a forum for horizon scanning and escalation of industry issues; and
• review progress against agreed aims and objectives, and suggest remedial action for objectives that are not being achieved.

The work of the JCCC

This has been a particularly busy year for the JCCC, as the customs intermediaries standard was launched on 2 June. Developed with the support of HMRC in partnership with the British Standards Institution, it aims to improve quality and promote good practice among customs intermediaries.

There have also been two major opportunities for stakeholder engagement. In the consultation on the introduction of mandatory registration for customs intermediaries, CIOT’s customs specialists from its Indirect Taxes Committee and the Professional Standards team attended a roundtable to provide feedback on the proposals (see this month’s technical team article). There was also a call for evidence on modernising the UK customs regime.

There is also work being undertaken on digitalisation in customs, with the digital ATA Carnets transitional phase launched in June and ongoing work on the electronic trade document project. The CIOT also attended the Trade Digitisation in Practice event in the summer.

The JCCC has several forums with different roles in engagement on customs issues, and the CIOT has representatives on the following:

JCCC monthly meetings and six-monthly reviews

The main JCCC meetings are held monthly, with the focus on live projects, including those listed above. They also cover engagement on the software systems supporting imports and exports (e.g. Customs Declarations Service (CDS) and Goods Vehicle Movements Service (GVMS)), sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and the various authorisations to pay reduced customs duty. The JCCC also sets up topic-specific ‘Task and Finish’ subgroups to engage with subject specialists.

Every six months, there is a review meeting providing updates from each of the forums and subgroups. The minutes from these meetings are published in the JCCC section of gov.uk.

Northern Ireland subgroup

The CIOT has a representative on the Northern Ireland subgroup, which has a specific focus on the movement of goods between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and Northern Ireland and the rest of the world. Topics of interest include the Trader Support Service, Internal Market Movements and, more recently, how the EU deforestation rules interact with the internal market in Northern Ireland.

Customs Guidance Subgroup

HMRC meets with stakeholders interested in customs guidance several times a year to discuss guidance projects and seek feedback on draft guidance. The CIOT has been a member since the group’s inception and has provided feedback on drafts of several of the customs technical handbooks.

Members of the CIOT and ATT highlight issues with the customs regime by contacting us at [email protected] or [email protected]. If the issue is illustrative of a wider problem, we can raise this with the relevant JCCC forum.
 

Jayne Simpson
[email protected]

Autumn Murphy
[email protected]