Officials from DexEU have been quietly working on the blueprint – drawn up by Japanese firm Fujitsu – for 10 months.
But, it has been rapidly dusted down in the last week after MPs voted to replace the current Irish backstop with a different one that could involve “alternative arrangements”.
An 11 page briefing on the explosive Futitsu plan has been leaked to The Sun.
Named the ‘Drive Through Border Concept’, it ensures there is no need for any physical checks on the border or hard infrastructure.
Instead, a tracking system monitors vehicles on designated routes as they cross from Northern Ireland to the Republic via GPS as well as number plate recognition cameras.
Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay is studying the plan closely.
It has also been circulated among a working group of senior Tory Leavers and Remainers who have come together to propose a new backstop based on stand-off customs checks, dubbed the Malthouse Compromise.
EU critics of the alternative arrangements to change the backstop have claimed the technology doesn’t yet exist to police the border and are years away.
But The Sun’s revelation today heaps more pressure on PM Theresa May to agree to push the border plan during talks in Brussels tomorrow.
The Sun has also learned that the working group has also been briefed on a goods tracking system in Africa that has used the same technology for the last 18 months.
Designed to ward off bandits and hijackers, the Regional Electronic Cargo Tracking System operates across borders between Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.
What is the plan?
A Tory minister involved in the talks told The Sun: “Given that we can land a probe the size of a fridge on Mars, it can’t be beyond us to devise an imperceptible system for a 310 mile border”.
Fujitsu have promised DexEU that proof of concept trials on the border with 100 hauliers testing their system will be ready by March 29.
Marked ‘Restricted – Commercial in Confidence’, the document also reveals the plan allows;
- Tariffs to be paid online in advance, by registered users (known as Authorised Economic Operators)
- Police to clamp down on cross-border smuggling that costs £1bn a year in lost duty by monitoring every goods vehicle that crosses the border
- Customs officials to carry out spot check on suspicious vehicles be ordering them to re-route to inspection depots away from the border
- Suspect vehicles to be identified and flagged by the Artificial Intelligence-driven analysis which looks at journeys as well as a wide array of other information, including social media posts.
Proof of concept ready for a trial by March 29, 100 hauliers to test it
The only infrastructure needed to run the system are number plate recognition cameras on approach roads to the border itself.
But that could anger nationalists who will say it break Mrs May’s promise of no infrastructure at all.
The Fujitsu system could also be rejected by the Northern Irish, who have a deep dislike of state surveillance that dates back to the Troubles era.
A DExEU spokesperson said: "Throughout this process the Government has explored options with firms and experts for proposals to solve the issue of the Irish border.
"As the Political Declaration makes clear, the UK and the EU have committed to exploring what alternative arrangements to the backstop might look like. We are also clear that those solutions can not include new border infrastructures.”
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