Eleven years after the publication of the Review of Procedures at UK Ports and Airports including the Channel Tunnel SITPRO is embarking on a new Ports Report. The original report was undertaken at the request of traders concerned at the new official requirements creeping in despite the removal of internal borders under the EU Single Market. Its purpose was to identify all official requirements relating to procedures at ports, airports, the Channel Tunnel and Inland Clearance Depots; to assess their impact on commercial procedures and to recommend measures to reduce burdens and minimise the impact of the requirements.
In an era when traders face a growing number of regulations driven largely by the security agenda, it is timely once again to undertake a review of the range of procedural requirements that exist. The new review will first of all assess the state of play with regard to the twenty-two recommendations made in the first report. It will then look at all the procedures currently in place for intra-EU and cross border trade as well as generic regulatory requirements relating to the movement of goods such as those governing dangerous goods. The report will investigate both the official and the commercial requirements and will aim to provide an analysis of the regulatory environment as it is today and also to provide a database of all the controls currently in place.
This report will inform the work of the Ports and Borders Group and enable SITPRO to highlight key problems and make recommendations. The database of controls should become a vital tool for government agencies when they wish to impose new controls as it will allow SITPRO to demonstrate what already exists and help identify whether proposed controls complement existing measures or duplicate them.
In the coming months SITPRO will be visiting key stakeholders and circulating a questionnaire to its wider stakeholder base. If you wish to take part in the questionnaire or participate in this report in any way, please contact Aileen Prendergast (aileen.prendergast@sitpro.org.uk 
).
Return to SITPRO News: Issue 64, Spring 2008