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Guidance

Customs civil penalties

Find out about the law and regulations for customs civil penalties.

Updates to this page

From:
HM Revenue & Customs
Published:
11 November 2011
Last updated:
12 August 2026
Show all updates

  1. Within 'Customs: schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021' reason codes 453 and 454 have been added, and reason codes 448, 450, 451 and 452 have been updated.

  2. The ‘relevant rule of a description' for reason code 121 has been updated in section 7 of ‘Customs: schedule of contraventions after 9 May 2018’.

  3. Updated reason code 120 in ‘Customs: schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021’ document.

  4. Updated reason codes 415 and DIR in ‘Customs: schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021’ document.

  5. Reason code 031 has been removed from the 'Presentation of goods to customs' section of page attachment 'Customs: schedule of contraventions after 9 May 2018'. Reason code 72 has been updated to include information about the 'Person of a description (Maximum penalty)', within the 'Roll-on roll-off (RoRo) vehicles' section of page attachment 'Customs: schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021'.

  6. Updated reason codes 080, 120, 121, 200, 201, 205, 207, 209, 211, 230, 231 and 409 in 'Customs: schedule of contraventions after 9 May 2018’ document. Updated reason codes 231, 234 and 409 in 'Customs: schedule of contraventions after 1 January 2021' document. Updated reason codes 510 and 521 in 'Export: schedule of contraventions after 14 May 2018' document.

  7. Updated codes 510 and 521 in 'Export: schedule of contraventions after 14 May 2018'. Also, updated code 521 in 'Export: schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021'.

  8. Updated reason codes 050 and 051 in 'Customs: schedule of contraventions after 9 May 2018’ document.

  9. Reason code 6 of the Customs schedule of contraventions after 9 May 2018 has been updated to align with amendments to Customs schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021.

  10. Updated reason code 122 in Customs schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021 to refer to 'Customs (Special procedures and Outward processing) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018, regulation 42(7)'. Updated Customs schedule of contraventions after 9 May 2018 to reflect amendments to Customs schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021.

  11. The 'relevant rule of a description' for reason code 423 within 'Customs: schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021' has been updated to reflect changes to Customs (Temporary Storage Facilities Approval Conditions and Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018.

  12. 'Customs: schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021' has been updated within sections 'Relief' and 'Unaccompanied goods' to add reason codes 13 and 14.

  13. 'Customs: schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021' has been updated within sections 'Report', 'EU system of duty reliefs', 'Presentation of goods to customs', 'Information and Records' and 'Unaccompanied goods'. 'Export: schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021' has been updated within reason codes 502, 505 and 526. This is to reflect changes in various new and amended statutory regulations.

  14. The Customs schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021 section has been updated within the 'Report' and 'Declarations' sections to reflect legislation changes within the Customs (Aerodromes and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2023.

  15. The approved person (maximum penalty) for code 400 of the 'Customs: schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021' has been updated. A new approved person (maximum penalty) for code 452 of the 'Customs: schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021' has been added.

  16. The approved person (maximum penalty) for code 400 of the 'Customs: schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021' has been updated. A new regulation for ‘The Customs (Preferential Trade Arrangements: Error in Evidence of Origin) Regulations 2024’ has been added to the ‘Export: schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021’.

  17. 'Customs: schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021' has been updated to remove reason code 300, and section 9 'Preference'. New sections have been added about safety and security penalties: section 13 'Authorised Economic Operators', section 14 'Entry summary declarations' and section 15 'Exit summary declarations'. 'Export: schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021' has been updated with information on penalties for reason code 300.

  18. Under Section 1 – Report - Reason code 413, the person of description has been updated to "The person of whom the requirement is made (£1,000)". Also under Section 7 – Community status of goods and community transit - Reason code 216, the person of a description has been updated to "The carrier (£2,500)."

  19. Information for code 9 in the relevant rule of description column of the ‘Customs: schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021' has been updated.

  20. Information in the ‘Relevant rule of description’ column in the ‘Customs: schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021’ table has been updated. Information in the ‘Relevant Export Rule’ column, in the ‘Export: schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021’ table has also been updated. This is to show the source of primary legislation that supports the enforcement of the penalties listed in both tables.

  21. Information in the relevant rule of description column for reason code 443 has been removed from Customs: schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021. Information in the relevant export rule column for penalty reason code 445 has been updated in Export: schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021.

  22. The Customs: schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021 has been updated with information about Freeports. Penalty code 445 has been added to the Export: schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021.

  23. The lists of Customs and Export schedules of contravention valid from 1 January 2021 onwards have been updated due to civil penalties in effect from 1 January 2022.

  24. Information about the customs and export schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021 has been added.

  25. Export: schedule of contraventions after 14 May 2018 has been added to this page.

  26. Information on the schedule of contraventions from 9 May 2018 has been added.

  27. Schedule and Annex to list all rules applicable from 2 April 2015 have been added to this page.

  28. First published.

Documents

Customs: schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021

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Export: schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021

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Customs: schedule of contraventions after 9 May 2018

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Export: schedule of contraventions after 14 May 2018

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Customs: schedule of contraventions from 1 April 2015 to 9 May 2018

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Annex to schedule of contraventions after 1 April 2015

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Details

Information on the rules, who is liable, penalty amounts and the reason codes HMRC uses to charge customs or export penalties.

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