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At least £100m spent on unused Brexit border posts
Five of seven border inspection sites in England and Wales never became operational, with at least £100m of public money spent on the unused facilities. The National Audit Office separately estimated last year that Brexit's overall cost was about £4.7bn.
Five of the seven Brexit border inspection facilities in England and Wales never became operational, a disclosure has shown. The sites have been described as zombie posts: costly infrastructure that did not go on to handle checks on goods.
At least £100m of taxpayers' money was wasted on setting up these unused posts, according to the account. The Conservative governments were said to have wavered over how goods should be inspected, and the facilities never reached the stage at which they could be used.
The figure sits alongside a wider bill. Last year the National Audit Office estimated the overall cost of Brexit at about £4.7bn. Its assessment covered a years-long transformation of customs-declaration software and other systems intended to cope with the UK's departure.
The £100m figure concerns the border inspection sites rather than the technology programme. It points to the expense of preparations that produced no working checks, and to the scrutiny facing spending tied to Brexit.
Source: The Guardian
Written with AI from the linked source