Available to all organisations, who meet the eligibility criteria, to cover up to 100% of eligible training costs
The grant will provide funding for training that provides you and/or your employees or apprentices with skills to:
- Complete customs declarations or other declarations required to complete customs processes in the UK or EU, such as safety and security declarations.
- Manage customs processes and use customs software and systems.
The training does not have to lead to a formal qualification. The training itself should be either delivery of a commercially procured training course, or a defined formal internal training course such as a trainer led session away from the desk or a programme of relevant eLearning.
What are the available funding limits?
Your organisation may wish to apply for training for a number of staff. You can apply for funding for up to 100% of the cost of training, provided it does not exceed the caps detailed below for internal and external training, and you can confirm this would not increase the total amount of any grants you have received above the de-minimis state aid received limit of €200,000 threshold in any three years. De-minimis aid is defined in the EU Commission’s Regulation No 1407/2013.
Externally delivered training
The cap per trainee per training course is £1,500. Should eligible training costs exceed that amount, grant support will be limited to £1,500 per trainee per training course. An individual trainee can attend multiple courses.
Internally delivered training
The cap per trainee per training course is £250. Should eligible training costs exceed that amount, grant support will be limited to £250 per trainee per training course.
What are the time limits on qualifying expenditure?
Please note, qualifying expenditure must have been made on or after the announcement of the additional £50m funding on 12 June 2020 and must be evidenced, in full, on submission of your claim for payment. The claim for payment including acceptable evidence of expenditure must be submitted within two calendar months of the grant offer being issued, and by 31 August 2021 at the latest.
Is my organisation eligible?
To apply for a grant, you must be based in, or have a branch, in the UK at both the time of application and payment of the grant. All eligible organisations are able to apply for one, two or all three of the grants.
To apply for the Custom Grants Scheme, the applicant must meet all of the following criteria:
- Your organisation must:
- Complete or intend to complete customs declarations on behalf of its clients (this includes customs brokers, express operators and freight forwarders); or
- Import/export goods and complete or intend to complete customs declarations internally for its own goods; or
- Be an organisation which recruits, trains and places apprentices into customs intermediaries or other organisations which undertake customs declarations activity.
Declarations are defined as “the preparation of customs declarations paperwork and/or digital activity (whether import or export declarations), including relating to Safety and Security, and submission of these to customs authorities.”
- The organisation must have been established for at least 12 months prior to the submission of the application for grant funding.
- The applicant must have a permanent establishment or branch in the UK, at both the time of application and payment of the grant.
- Applicants must be in good standing with HMRC. An organisation may not be in good standing where our records show applicants (including directors / owners / senior staff) have not complied with HMRC requirements, either currently or in the past. HMRC will make a proportionate decision whether or not an applicant will be disqualified on these grounds. Indicators could include a record of:
- Overdue tax returns; or
- Not paying tax or duties due (or not complying with any agreed Time To Pay arrangement with HMRC); or
- Business administration or personal insolvency; or
- Disqualification from acting as a director; or
- Net negative assets.
- All applicants agree to cooperate with HMRC at suitable points after the payment of grants, to provide such data as is required to demonstrate the expansion of capacity that has resulted from the aforementioned grants.
Please note: Applications made from 29 July 2020 are subject to these new eligibility criteria, as well as new funding Terms and Conditions.