§ Mr. Knoxasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in view of the difficulties caused to importers by the strike of staff operating the computerised Customs clearance system at London Heathrow airport in terms of delays and of additional expense necessitated by the storage of goods prior to clearance, if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Peter ReesThe LACES system is operated by the Post Office on behalf of the Customs and Excise, the airlines and the Customs agents at Heathrow and Gatwick and is thus not exclusively a Customs service. It was withdrawn from use on 19 April as a result of industrial action by National Data Processing Service staff. Since then, Customs and Excise has instituted fallback procedures for the manual processing of import entry documents. Regrettably, it is not possible to match the speed of the computer system, but urgent consignments are being cleared within a few hours and the great majority of goods within a day. Since the computer system covers functions other than Customs clearance, I understand that its absence is causing separate difficulties for airlines and agents, leading to delays in the delivery of goods.
The Government hope that the Post Office and the unions concerned will speedily resolve this dispute.