SPE15280 - Usual Forms of Handling (UFH), other processing and records: overview

Note: This manual is under review following Brexit and is likely to be withdrawn. If there is anything within this manual you use regularly, please email hmrcmanualsteam@hmrc.gov.uk to let us know. Please check the other guidance available on GOV.UK from HMRC.

Goods under the customs warehouse procedure can undergo Usual Forms of Handling (UFH) which are designed to:

• preserve the goods
• prepare the goods for distribution or sale, or
• improve the appearance or marketability quality of the goods.

Any forms of handling undertaken are not subject to separate authorisation by the customs authorities in advance.

Para. 18 The Customs (Special Procedures and Outward Processing) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018
(952/2013 Article 220, 2015/2446 Article 180 & Annex 71-03 for NI)

Note: It should be remembered that the overriding intention of any UFH undertaken must be to achieve one of the above three criteria (with the exception of stocktaking), if this is not the case then the UFH should not be authorised.

Note: Northern Ireland (NI) customs authorisations will continue to fall within the provisions of the Union Customs Code (UCC), as retained by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and CEMA 1979.