UK shelves £110m frictionless post-Brexit trade border project
The UK government has shelved a project to simplify trade border processes post-Brexit after spending £110m on a contract with Deloitte and IBM for it, according to reports.The last Conservative government promised in 2020 to create the “world’s most effective border” by 2025 as part of its plan for a new trade system after Britain left the EU.The government hoped a “single trade window” (STW) would simplify border processes by creating a single digital platform in which importers and exporters could upload all documentation linked to goods before they are transported.However, the STW project was paused in 2024 amid concerns over costs.Government responses to freedom of information requests submitted by the thinktank TaxWatch, seen by the Financial Times, now suggest no money has been spent on the project since January last year, with the Treasury writing that the programme had been “brought to an early closure”.
A series of delays have hindered post-Brexit border arrangements.The National Audit Office estimated that the government spent at least £4.7bn on post-Brexit border controls in 2024.The TaxWatch director, Mike Lewis, told the FT: “For all intents and purposes the single trade window has been cancelled without HMRC or Deloitte and IBM having delivered anything after spending over £110m on it.But neither HMRC nor ministers appear to wish to admit this.
”The government said while the “delivery” of the STW had been paused for the 2025-26 financial year, “policy development” continued,There is still, however, no definitive timeframe for its implementation,While the STW was promised by the former Conservative government, Keir Starmer’s Labour government had also promised to deliver the project,A trade strategy policy document published last year said “it remains the government’s intention to deliver a single trade window”, and that it was “committed to minimising administrative burdens and frictions experienced by businesses trading internationally”,Starmer has promised closer alignment on trade with the EU as part of the “reset” deal announced last May, which is designed to remove the need for border checks and health certificates.
However, any deal on food standards and animal welfare, known as a sanitary and phytosanitary agreement, is currently being negotiated between the UK and the EU and may not be implemented until 2027.A government spokesperson said: “We remain committed to delivering a single trade window, recognising its potential benefits to trade, as set out in the trade strategy published in June last year.Policy development is ongoing and focused on designing a service that delivers genuine value to businesses and strengthens the UK’s border system.”The news comes almost a decade after the Brexit vote in the 2016 referendum.Under the agreement negotiated by Boris Johnson’s government, the UK has tariff-free trade with the EU.
However, access is limited by rules and restrictions, and is still far away from the UK’s previous membership of the single market and customs union.Goods exports have been particularly affected, with volumes falling dramatically after the end of the Brexit transition period in January 2021.In 2024, goods exports from the UK to the EU were 18% below their 2019 level in real terms.Deloitte declined to comment.IBM was approached for comment.
Goldman Sachs to drop race, gender and LGBTQ+ criteria from board evaluations
Goldman Sachs is removing race, gender and other diversity-related considerations when evaluating prospective candidates for its executive board after pressure from an activist shareholder group to remove the criteria.The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), a small Goldman shareholder, quietly submitted a request to the company last September asking the bank to eliminate its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) board criteria.According to a Wall Street Journal report, Goldman recently informed the group that it plans to remove the DEI criteria, and the two parties signed an agreement under which the NLPC would withdraw its proposal.Goldman’s board is expected to approve the changes this month, people familiar with the matter told the Journal.Currently, the board’s governance committee evaluates qualified candidates based primarily on four factors
UK interest rate cut likely in March as unemployment rate rises; youth joblessness to ‘increase significantly’ in coming months – as it happened
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AI’s workplace revolution is here – and anxiety is rising with it
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, The Guardian’s US tech editor, writing to you while cheering on Team USA in the Winter Olympics.Throughout 2026, The Guardian will publish a series of stories about how artificial intelligence is affecting modern labor. We’re calling it Reworked: A series about what’s at stake as AI disrupts our jobs.Our first story published this morning
Claims that AI can help fix climate dismissed as greenwashing
Tech companies are conflating traditional artificial intelligence with generative AI when claiming the energy-hungry technology could help avert climate breakdown, according to a report.Most claims that AI can help avert climate breakdown refer to machine learning and not the energy-hungry chatbots and image generation tools driving the sector’s explosive growth of gas-guzzling datacentres, the analysis of 154 statements found.The research, commissioned by nonprofits including Beyond Fossil Fuels and Climate Action Against Disinformation, did not find a single example where popular tools such as Google’s Gemini or Microsoft’s Copilot were leading to a “material, verifiable, and substantial” reduction in planet-heating emissions.Ketan Joshi, an energy analyst and author of the report, said the industry’s tactics were “diversionary” and relied on tried and tested methods that amount to “greenwashing”.He likened it to fossil fuel companies advertising their modest investments in solar panels and overstating the potential of carbon capture
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Tiger Woods weighs offer to captain 2027 US Ryder Cup team
Tiger Woods has confirmed he has been asked to captain the US team at Ryder Cup next year. Woods, who has not played competitively since the 2024 Open Championship, has also semi-remarkably left the door open to teeing up in the Masters this year.With the US still reeling from defeat by Europe at Bethpage in September, thoughts have turned towards attempts to reclaim the Ryder Cup in Ireland. Woods is the PGA of America’s first choice as captain. The 50-year-old will determine whether he believes he can commit sufficiently to the role
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