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Customs And Excise

Volume 205: debated on Wednesday 4 March 1992

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To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what staffing implications were envisaged in 1989 by the board of Her Majesty's Customs and Excise on the implementation of the review of anti-smuggling controls; and what is the current assessment of the staffing implications.

The review of anti-smuggling controls initiated a move away from static controls to controls applied according to risk. No central estimate of the staffing effects of the review was made in 1989. Instead local senior managers were asked to reassess their staffing levels taking account of the principles of the review, the main theme being a move away from the 24 hour rostered attendance to flexible attendance by better-equipped, better-informed anti-smuggling teams—FASTs. FAST attendance depends very much upon an informed assessment of the risk at each location and on account of each movement.The current assessment of the staffing implications is that between 370 and 396 posts can be saved in the four year period from 1991 to 1995. However, these savings do not represent a net loss to Her Majesty's Customs and Excise and must be viewed in the light of additional posts to be used on anti-smuggling work in connection with the channel tunnel and funds for the provision of extra equipment—£1 million in 1991–92 to 1992–93—extra training—£0·4 million in 1992–93—and extra intelligence gathering—£0·6 million from the seized assets fund in 1992–93. Her Majesty's Customs and Excise is also involved in numerous international initiatives and a further sum of about £125,000 will be provided in 1992–93 as part of the commitment to a European customs information system.