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Guidance

Customs declaration completion requirements for Great Britain

Use this guide as a supplement when using the CDS Declaration Instructions to import and export goods to and from Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) after the end of the transition period.

Updates to this page

From:
HM Revenue & Customs
Published:
21 December 2020
Last updated:
12 June 2026
Show all updates

  1. Declaration Completion Instruction sections for ‘Requested Procedure 78: Release to a Free Zone/Freeport’ and Additional Procedure Code ‘19Z: Removal of goods from a Free Zone/Freeport’ have been removed and included in the CDS Declaration Completion Instructions for Imports; Inventory Imports; and Inventory Exports.

  2. The GB Tariff Supplement has been updated for Data Element 5/23 where the Previous Procedure code is 78.

  3. The GB Supplement has been updated for Procedure Codes 7851 and 7853 to correct the Location Type Identifier fields for Data Element 5/23 Location of Goods, when Authorisation by Customs Declaration is used.

  4. Guidance on claiming preference under the EU-UK Free Trade Agreement has been updated to replace the preference documents with U116, U117 and U118. Document codes U110, U111 and U112 will continue to have EU preference granted against them for now, but declarants should start using the correct document codes.

  5. The Great Britain supplement to CDS Declaration instructions have been updated to remove information about the CHIEF system following its withdrawal.

  6. Several workarounds for Authorisation by Customs Declaration (AbD) have been removed. The only workarounds remaining in use are those relating to End Use Special Procedures.

  7. Additional Information codes ABDIN and ABDOU have been introduced for the purposes of entering goods to a Special Procedure using Authorisation By Customs Declaration (ABD) or removing goods from a Special Procedure which they originally entered using ABD. Procedure codes which permit ABD for the requested and previous procedure code (7851 and 7853) have been updated.

  8. Sections no longer relevant for the GB supplement that are currently published within the CDS collection have been removed.

  9. Updates have been made to 'Tariff Volume 3 Great Britain Supplement CDS and CHIEF' to reflect changes to Republic of Ireland to Great Britain movements which came into force at 00:01am on 31 January 2024.

  10. References to ‘Customs Freight Simplified Procedures’ have been replaced with ‘Simplified Customs Declaration Processes’.

  11. The temporary Buyer and Seller easement and the temporary extension in use of I1 B&E, which were due to expire on 30 September 2023, have been extended until the current Call For Evidence on Customs Declarations has been concluded.

  12. All businesses will now need to declare goods through the Customs Declaration Service from 30 March 2024.

  13. Use of document code 999L extended to 31 January 2024 for imports and 31 January 2025 for exports.

  14. Reference to Data Element 2/2 has been included in the Completion Instructions table under the section about Postponed VAT Accounting manual calculation.

  15. Notes on swine fever measures have been removed as these are no longer applicable to commercial imports. Document code 9033, 9034 or 9036 should still be declared for non-commercial imports of porcine products from EU countries.

  16. The notes on African Swine Fever measures have been updated to reflect the removal of measures from commercial imports arriving from the EU on or after 31 March 2023.

  17. Changes have been made to the guidance for completing Bulk import Reduced Data Set (BIRDS) declarations.

  18. The section 'Climate Change Levy Import/Export Additional Procedure Codes (APCs) 1CL, 2CL, 1FT and Appendix 16J' has been added.

  19. Page 19 and from page 41 have been updated in the GB supplement to provide guidance on using Postponed VAT Accounting (PVA) where a manual duty calculation (AI code OVR01) is declared.

  20. The declaration completion instructions for certain products where the import control under ‘The African Swine Fever (Import Controls) (England and Scotland) Order 2022’ do not apply, have been revised to remove commodity codes beginning 0206.

  21. Declaration Completion Instructions have been added at page 49 for certain products where the import control under ‘The African Swine Fever (Import Controls) (England and Scotland) Order 2022’ do not apply.

  22. The goods location code for Peterhead has been amended.

  23. The Tariff Volume 3 Great Britain Supplement CDS and CHIEF has been updated relating to the temporary removal of the requirement to use British pounds sterling (GBP) as the declared currency on CDS when using APC’s C07, C08, 1PL, or 21V.

  24. The Tariff Volume 3 Great Britain Supplement CDS and CHIEF has been updated to include guidance on how to declare ‘Authorisation by Declaration’ on the Customs Declaration Service.

  25. Guidance has been added to clarify that non-GB EORI's must not be declared on a Customs Declaration Service declaration. This applies to all data elements requiring declaration of an EORI.

  26. Update made to Imports of Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) Goods from EU Countries. Corrections made to amend the Document Identifier fields of the table used to provide details of how an Import of Products, Animals, Food and Feed (IPAFF) notification should be made on a Custom’s Declaration. Updates also made to remove references to Low Value Bulk Imports (LVBI) and additional Procedure Codes 1IL, 1LV and 2LV which are no longer in use and will be replaced by Bulking Import Reduced Data Set (BIRDS). A reference to VAT Notice 702 has been removed as this notice has been withdrawn.

  27. This document has been updated in relation to the following: references to Safety and Security declarations being required from 1 July 2022 have been removed and the paragraph headed 'Further changes from 1 July 2022' has been updated. Annex 1 of the Supplement has been updated in relation to the use of: Simplified Procedures; Additional Information code 'WHSRP'; Additional Procedure Codes A04 and F44; and information added in connection with Inventory Import-Export Additional Procedure Code 19Z.

  28. Part 1, 2022 Updates and Part 2, Annex 1: CDS Appendices have been updated to include information about the extension of the I1 B&E Simplification being introduced on CDS for Great Britain imports from 25 June 2022. This facilitation extends the circumstances in which the simplified declaration on an occasional basis (I1 B&E data set) may be used for import purposes in Great Britain.

  29. The page has been corrected under GVMS: Declaration Completion Changes with a note to explain that for exports using a CSE authorisation or exporting through an 'arrived exports location', an arrived A, B, C, J, Y or Z must be declared.

  30. Note added to page 123 to clarify use of additional declaration types: A, B, C, J, Y or Z, when submitting an export declaration at a GVMS location using a CSE authorisation, or at an 'arrived exports location'. C21 functionality on CHIEF at GVMS locations will be live from 21 June 2022.

  31. This Supplement has been updated to include the introduction of new facilitations under the Freeport Arrangements being introduced on 1 April 2022. The following sections of the Supplement have been updated: Part 1, 2022 updates, Freeports. Part 2, Annexe 1, CDS Appendices, Appendix 1 and 2; DE 1/10 to DE 1/11 Correlation Matrices; and Simplified Procedure Exclusion List. Part 2, Annexe 2, CHIEF Tariff Appendices, Appendix 4.

  32. The page has been updated to reflect a change of date for code 999L from 29 January 2022 to 7 February 2022.

  33. Information included at Page 28 regarding a temporary simplification in relation to the completion of the Buyer/Seller details (Data Elements 3/24 to 3/27) on an import declaration.

  34. The Tariff Volume 3 Great Britain Supplement CDS and CHIEF has been updated to reflect that changes previously scheduled for 22 January 2022 will now become effective on 29 January 2022.

  35. Changes have been made to the Great Britain supplement to include new guidance for changes that come into effect from Jan 2022. Completion instructions on how these changes affect the customs declaration for CHIEF and CDS are included in Part 2, including new codes lists in Annexes. The document has also been updated to provide guidance on 2021 changes that are still extant.

  36. This page has been updated with CDS and CHIEF declaration completion requirements for freeports.

  37. This page has been updated in a RoRo footnote at page 71 and 123 to replace an incorrect reference to Eurostar with the word ‘Eurotunnel’.

  38. Tariff Volume 3 Great Britain Supplement CDS and CHIEF has been updated.

  39. Information about HMRC closing the Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight (CHIEF) system on 31 March 2023 has been added.

  40. The Tariff Volume 3 Great Britain Supplement CDS and CHIEF has been updated to notify interim requirements when entering certain document codes in CDS, when a waiver is claimed or an open licence is being declared.

  41. The Great Britain CDS and CHIEF supplement has been updated.

  42. Various changes have been made including: information about form INF3, moving goods through Cairnryan, the requirements for certain movements declared to CHIEF, EU airport International Air Transport Association codes and percentages for Zone Q.

  43. The Great Britain CDS and CHIEF supplement has been updated.

  44. First published.

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

Documents

Great Britain supplement to CDS Declaration instructions

ODT, 103 KB

This file is in an OpenDocument format

Details

This guidance supplements the Customs Declaration Service instructions when making declarations. It should be read in conjunction with the current CDS Declaration and Customs Clearance Request Instructions (UK Trade Tariff: volume 3 for CDS).

It provides high level information on the customs requirements and includes the specific changes and declaration completion requirements where they differ to the current published Tariff instructions.

You should make sure that the instructions specific to the declaration system being used are read.

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