Parcel delivery charges to Northern Ireland should not rise after Brexit because there is no Irish Sea border, Secretary of State insists

Several courier companies, including one of the largest UK delivery firms, Yodel, have already said that there will be additional charges for delivery to Northern Ireland because of the added bureaucracy of new customs arrangements.

Yodel said that the transit time for goods to Northern Ireland “may increase because of customs checks and inspections on exported/imported goods may take place”

In a guide for its customers, Yodel said that goods sent to Northern Ireland would require three documents – an import declaration, a safety and security declaration, and a goods movement reference number.

Some companies have stopped supplying Northern Ireland altogether.

When asked by the News Letter today if the government would legislate to ensure that customers in Northern Ireland do not pay more for deliveries, Brandon Lewis said that there was no plan for such legislation but he was aware of the issue.

He said that with Northern Ireland remaining “an integral part of the UK customs union”, it “should have the same access to products and companies as they would wherever they were based in the UK. That is something I hope we are able to resolve very, very swiftly.

“It shouldn’t really be happening at all. There should be no reason for a change in the charge of delivery from January.”

SoS backs ‘misleading’ NIO tweet

Two months ago the NIO tweeted to say “There will be no border in the Irish Sea between GB & NI”, something which the Institute for Government described as “misleading” and “an example of “increasing abuse of official communications”.

When asked if he stood over the tweet, Brandon Lewis said that he did and insisted he had “always been very up-front about SPS checks” and that “the whole point of the [government-funded] Trader Support Service and Movement Assistance Scheme is to ensure that we do not have a border”.

When asked if he could give an assurance that those schemes will be permanent rather than transient attempts to mitigate the border, he said that the schemes are “not a short term fix  they’re there to support businesses and we see that as an ongoing structure”.

He added: “I think we’ll find that as we go into the next year or so that businesses will continue to trade freely....people will see that in reality there is no border”

FROM THE DECLASSIFEID FILES:

Irish Government did secret deal with Gerry Adams to free IRA prisoners days after 1994 ceasefire, declassified file reveals

‘Surreal’ moment as Irish Presbyterian leader ‘insisted to diplomats that he wasn’t Irish’

Gerry Adams was ignorant of basic Protestant views and didn’t think he had to persuade unionists to back a united Ireland: Declassified file

Government pondered renaming or giving away Stormont as it meticulously planned for the Good Friday Agreement, declassified files reveal

NIO wanted to give lump sum to war hero Forum chairman due to job’s stress prior to 1998 Agreement, declassified file shows

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