Windsor Framework and the Border Target Operating Model

The Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee has been set up by the Senedd to look at policy and legislation, and to hold the Welsh Government to account in specific areas. These areas include business, economic development, skills, international trade, agriculture, fisheries and food.

The Committee is looking at issues relating to the Windsor Framework and the Border Target Operating Model.

¬¬¬Border Target Operating Model

After the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, the UK, Welsh, and Scottish governments and officials from Northern Ireland designed a new import regime, the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM). Published in August 2023, it set out a timetable for the introduction of new trade controls on all of our imports, including imports from the EU.

The Welsh Government is responsible for some of these controls. Wales’ biosecurity, food safety and sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) controls (which protect animal, plant and public health) are all devolved. New border control posts (BCPs) are needed at Holyhead, Fishguard and Pembroke Dock to perform these checks.

More detail is included in the Senedd Research article, Wales and the UK’s new border operating model.

Report

The Committee published its report Border Target Operating Model: A view from Wales on 29 October 2024 (PDF 3.64MB)

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¬¬¬Windsor Framework

The Windsor Framework changes parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol to simplify or eliminate requirements for GB-NI customs, agrifoods, VAT and excise, pet movements, manufactured goods, medicines and subsidies. The ‘green lane’ established by the Framework to simplify the movement of some GB-NI goods began operating on 1 October 2023.

More background information is available in the Senedd Research article, Wales and the Windsor Framework. 

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