A government bill currently passing through the legislative process has the potential to impact significantly on the operators and users of British ports. The Immigration, Asylum and Nationality (IAN) Bill contains provisions to allow the Police to acquire information about the movement of freight arriving and leaving England, Wales and Northern Ireland (similar legislation will be placed to include Scotland).
A trade consultation meeting hosted by the Chamber of Shipping in November 2005 highlighted a number of potential problems. These included cases where the person in the best position to provide the information is not under UK jurisdiction; transit and transhipment; commercially sensitive data; and intra-European Union freight movements. It was feared that all these factors could have the cumulative and undesirable effect of distorting trading patterns, diverting goods from British ports and making UK transport and forwarding service sectors uncompetitive.
The Home Office has taken these concerns on board and set up an Industry and Stakeholder Group (ISG), which met for the first time in December and will cover the impact across all 17 border agencies and identify the operational issues in the two main transport sectors - sea (to include road and rail) and air. If you would like to contribute to SITPRO’s work in this area, please contact gordon.cragge@sitpro.org.uk 
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Return to SITPRO News: Issue 55, Winter 2005/2006