Government plans to continue with the ‘flawed’ e-Borders scheme in spite of the public spending cuts elsewhere has upset the RYA who hoped the plan would be ditched.
 
Gus Lewis Head of Government Affairs for the RYA, said: “It’s disappointing that despite the inherent flaws in the proposed programme, which we have been pointing out to Government regularly over the last three years, it apparently still intends to implement the proposed programme without any attempt to address these flaws.
 
“The Government has yet to publish a comprehensive explanation of how the e-Borders scheme will in practice be rolled out in the recreational boating sector but we understand that it will be based on a system of self-reporting voyages to and from the UK via a dedicated website up to 24 hours prior to departure.”
 
The RYA maintains that implementing the e-Borders programme in the recreational boating sector would be an inappropriate, disproportionate, ineffective and inefficient mechanism for securing the sea border.