Public Service Agreement 2005-06 to 2007-08 Technical Notes Objective 3
Technical notes objective 3
Strengthen frontier protection against threats to the security, social and economic integrity and environment of the United Kingdom in a way that balances the need to maintain the UK as a competitive location in which to do business.
Contents
Target 8 - by 2007-08, to improve our capability to intervene at the frontier
Key indicator 8.1
Number of seizures of prohibited and restricted goods
The term ‘prohibited and restricted’ covers a wide range of goods whose import or export is subject to regulatory and or anti-smuggling controls. They include drugs, firearms, endangered species, counterfeit goods and over 30 additional discrete 'regime' areas specified in legislation.
A seizure is recorded when HMRC detect goods in
circumstances that create a breach of an import or export prohibition or restriction.
For drugs and other prohibited or restricted goods we will
monitor the:
- Number of seizures.
- Quantity and/or weight of goods seized.
HMRC will investigate suitable cases and where appropriate refer these cases
for prosecution.
Targets
Prior to this year we had no targets in relation to any prohibited and restricted goods with the exception of class A drugs. We will continue to work with lead departments during this spending review period to obtain risk assessments that enable us to understand the level of illicit traffic and therefore agree appropriate targets.
For class A drugs enforcement, the government’s overall operational priority is SOCA (Serious Organised Crime Agency) led investigations. HMRC activity, in terms of intervening on drugs at the frontier, is secondary to SOCA requests for assistance in pursuit of investigations. As SOCA is new we have no means to estimate the volume and impact of such requests on HMRC resources or on our ability to meet HMRC specific numerical targets. We will be assessing this through 2006-07.
Until that work is complete we will aim to equal or exceed the quantities of:
- heroin
- cocaine
- products of animal origin
seized, against the previous year.
Baseline
To establish baseline figures for heroin and cocaine we had to disaggregate our outturn data for 2005-2006 to strip out figures that were generated by the area of the department that transferred to the Serious Organised Crime Agency. However, seizures made as a result of SOCA referrals will be included as they involve the deployment of Departmental resource.
Drug |
Weight |
Seizures |
|---|---|---|
Cocaine |
2,599 |
1,176 |
Heroin |
700 |
61 |
Reporting
Seizure data will be collated monthly via established electronic data capture systems. Seizure data will be reported, as appropriate, in our annual and spring reports.
Note
Due to a constantly changing threat environment, the relative risk and priority of the different prohibition and restriction regimes will vary from year to year and even within year. Straightforward increases in seizure levels would not meet the Government’s enforcement priorities in all cases and it is important we avoid any distortive effects. A good example concerns animal disease risk, where the priority may be to re-deploy resources to tackle traffic with a higher disease risk, rather than traffic that generates high numbers of seizures. As a result HMRC will not aim to achieve year-on-year increases for all regimes.
Key indicator 8.2
Percentage of positive outcomes against requests received for interventions.
This covers requests received for HMRC support from outside the Department - primarily from SOCA but also requests from other law enforcement agencies.
Our strategy, to maximise our contribution to the Home Office’s PSA on reducing harm from drugs, is to give priority to interventions of investigative value, whether or not they involve seizures of drugs at the time. Investigative value includes information that enhances the strategic knowledge of HMRC and SOCA in relation to the threats, as well as meeting specific goals in relation to SOCA’s control strategy and investigations.
We will measure:
- The number of requests received.
- The number of requests responded to.
- The number of responses that achieve a positive outcome.
A positive outcome may not be a seizure of prohibited or restricted goods by HMRC at the frontier; it may be the gathering of intelligence or some other action that results in a SOCA operation that dismantles an organised crime group.
A positive outcome will be where a specific request for an intervention, check or enquiry takes place regardless of the final outcome.
This work is demand-led and in other areas such as counter terrorism uses resources originally allocated to other work. Measuring this activity will allow us to understand the true cost of the diversion of resources, the value of that diversion and will enable the creation of a feedback loop to the originating agency.
Baseline
The bulk of these external requests are expected to come from SOCA. We will use this year (2006-07) to set a baseline and to allow us to discuss and negotiate with SOCA the deployment of HMRC resource to requests likely to have the most impact.
Key indicator 8.3
Service Level Agreements with lead Government Departments for prohibited and restricted goods.
The establishment of Service Level Agreements will regularise arrangements between HMRC and lead Departments (and in some cases agencies, devolved administrations and enforcement partners) on the nature and level of HMRC’s frontier response in the light of risk assessments provided by or on behalf of the lead policy department.
Baseline
HMRC will have 34 Service Level Agreements in place by March 2007 and will fulfil them by March 2008. SLAs for 32 established regimes were agreed by September 2006. Work continues on five other regimes to develop and agree policy processes so that SLAs can be agreed with lead departments once the legislative and enforcement frameworks are agreed in detail. HMRC will agree SLAs in respect of any proposals for new frontier controls.
Reporting
HMRC will consult with lead Departments and report progress annually.
Key indicator 8.4
Effectiveness of Cyclamen capability (in line with the Service Level Agreement with the Home Office)
Programme Cyclamen is a counter terrorist initiative to detect and deter the importation of illicit nuclear and radioactive material at UK points of entry.
Cyclamen is a joint programme. Home Office are responsible for implementation and HMRC are responsible for operating the capability. There is a Service Level Agreement (SLA) in place, reviewed and updated annually, that defines the roles and responsibilities of both parties.
HMRC’s operational aim is to intercept all alarming vehicles where HMRC are in attendance. However, due to the environment in which Cyclamen operates, this may not always be practicable. The target is therefore to intercept a minimum of 98 per cent of alarming vehicles.
Baseline
The baseline for the interception rate is 97 per cent based upon management information collected since 2004.
Further performance measures will be established as the rollout of the Cyclamen
capability continues. Rollout is due to be completed in 2009.
Target 9 - by 2007-08, to improve our effectiveness by 50 per cent in identifying irregularities in third country freight
Key indicator 9.1
Maintain or reduce the levels of interventions (both physical and documentary) made for goods entering or leaving the UK while increasing the proportion of irregularities identified as a result of more effective targeted interventions.
This target relates to the level of intervention in respect of risk based import and export declarations for goods moving into and out of the EU. These are handled via the Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight (CHIEF) computer system. It does not relate to:
- Intra EU movements of goods.
- Risk based anti-smuggling checks carried out on the basis of manifest information.
- MTIC movements because the nature of the examination, while physical, is to gather information on what goods are moving (scanning barcodes) rather than checking that they are correctly entered on CHIEF.
- EU Legislative interventions.
The majority of declarations are processed electronically and goods are released without Customs intervention. However, a number are selected for ‘Route 1’ intervention, requiring a manual check of the declaration and accompanying documentation prior to release of the goods. A further number are selected for ‘Route 2’ intervention, which involves the physical examination of the goods prior to release. (Documentary checks are also carried out on a post clearance basis, known as ‘Route 3’, but these are not included in this measure.)
Our aim is to maintain the free flow of goods by limiting our intervention activity to high-risk declarations that result in an irregularity. An irregularity is defined as any error or smuggling activity discovered as a result of a Departmental CHIEF intervention.
Baseline
The initial baseline figure will measure the proportion of irregularities identified from the number of examinations carried out against risk-based interventions. Performance will be reported monthly. This will apply to irregularities in respect of Route 2 physical interventions only as a proportion of the total examined.
Baseline and target percentage figures for Route 2 interventions:
- Route 2 baseline figure 18 per cent
- Route 2 target figure 27 per cent
The numbers of interventions generated are highly dependent on a number of factors e.g. level of trade, origin, and wider risk issues and these can vary significantly from month to month. It will be necessary to keep the target under review, refining the process as more historic information becomes available. The current baseline has been set on the basis of three months data only.
Note
In order to begin measurement against the target, the calculation of the route 2 baseline was based on an average of three months data from the 1 Jan 06. It has been agreed that the baseline will be kept as the foundation for the PSA improvement. Reporting has been by taking the average rolling three months performance which is the subject of final agreement with Treasury.
Target 10 - maintain the extent to which importers, exporters and their agents believe we are striking the right balance between frontier protection and maintaining the UK as a competitive location in which to do business.
We have developed a survey with Ipsos/MORI, structured to show the views of importers, exporters and their agents on the perceived balance between frontier protection and facilitation.
Baseline
The baseline is taken from the first survey conducted during March 2006. Thereafter, the survey will be embedded within the annual HMRC Customer Service Survey (CSS) research programme and results reported annually.
The key survey question for the purpose of the baselines is:
The UK customs border procedures operated by HM Revenue & Customs have a positive impact on the competitiveness of the UK as a place in which to do business.
- Total agree 46 per cent.
- Total disagree 22 per cent.
We will seek to maintain the lead of positive over negative responses at 24 percentage points.
PSA3 Target 10 applies only to the more regular International traders and also agents. For these purposes ‘regular traders’ were defined as those traders submitting at least 12 declarations (either import or export) in the previous 12 month period. While this differs from the initial IPSOS MORI definition it was not cost effective to commission a separate survey and the CSS definitions are consistent with PSA 2 . Regular traders fall naturally within the CSS sample so an approach was adopted to flag them up within the International trade sample so that the research agency ensured a sufficient number of interviews were attained. The weightings applied are set out in the table below:
Segment |
Proportion of overall population |
Interviews achieved |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Agent |
|
Full listings |
1,627 |
2.73% |
50 |
Trader & agent |
|
Full listings |
11,673 |
19.58% |
75 |
Regular traders |
Submitted at least 12 decs in previous 12 months |
Fall within Int. Trade CSS sample |
46,314 |
77.69% |
417 |
Total |
|
|
59,614 |
542 |
|
Sample and population counts provided by KAI from MSS covering the period June 05 to May 06
The final survey of the SR04 period took place at the end of 2007. We will reflect the possible impact of the activities of Other Government departments when we report the outcome.
