Guidance

Plant health news – April 2026

Updated 12 May 2026

This newsletter contains updates on changes for plant health forestry traders, including: 

• changes to the landing requirements for wood, wood products and isolated bark of conifers
• change to the use of document entry code 9115 with customs declarations  
• other changes to phytosanitary rules 
• consignments containing regulated and non-regulated material 
• action against sweet chestnut blight

Changes to the landing requirements for wood, wood products and isolated bark of conifers

Landing requirements are now in effect for the import of conifer wood, wood products and isolated bark from France. These are in response to an outbreak of pine wood nematode (PWN) which France confirmed on 5 November 2025. Measures to contain the pest are being applied in line with EU regulation 2012/535/EU. Find full information on the response to the PWN outbreak in France.

New controls were also introduced on conifer material from Armenia on 1 April 2025 as a measure to prevent PWN being introduced on imports.

Pine wood nematode measures

Due to the PWN outbreak in France, landing requirements now effect material from that country. Pre-notification of landing to the Forestry Commission is now required for all forms of regulated conifer wood which must also be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate on landing from France and Armenia. All regulated material will need to be declared to HMRC for quarantine release certificate checks by the Forestry Commission.

The exclusion which previously applied to the pre-notification and requirement for phytosanitary certificates to bark-free conifer wood will no longer apply. Use of the waiver code 991Y will no longer be allowed for bark-free conifer material from France or Armenia.

Instead, all imported wood and bark of conifers will need to meet the associated import requirements at entries 109, 110 and 111 of Annex 7A of the Phytosanitary Conditions Regulations. 

Importers are advised to contact their suppliers in France to ensure that exports of regulated conifer wood, wood products and isolated bark have now either:

• undergone an appropriate heat treatment to achieve a minimum temperature of 56°C for a minimum duration of 30 continuous minutes throughout the entire profile of the wood (including at its core), and  
• that subsequent to its treatment, it was transported, until its export from the country issuing the statement, outside the flight season of its vectors, Monochamus spp., taking into account a safety margin of 4 additional weeks at the beginning and at the end of the expected flight season. Or, in the case of wood which is not free from bark, with a protective covering to prevent infestation with Bursaphelenchus xylophilus (Steiner and  Bührer) Nickle or its vectors, Monochamus spp.

Or:

• undergone an appropriate heat treatment to achieve a minimum temperature of 56°C for a minimum duration of 30 continuous minutes throughout the entire profile of the wood, and  
• kiln-drying to below 20% moisture content expressed as a percentage of dry matter, achieved through an appropriate time/temperature schedule

What to do if you import conifer from France or Armenia

Importers or their agents must be registered with the Forestry Commission as professional operators. Register as a professional operator. 

You must give advance notice of landing to the Forestry Commission of at least:  

• 4 working hours for air cargo and ‘roll-on-roll-off’ freight 
• 1 working day for any other case  

To do this you should use a notification of landing form and email it to the relevant inspector. Find contact emails for notifications of landing.

Copies of phytosanitary certificates must be presented to the Forestry Commission with the notifications of landing. Failure to do so can result in delays to clearing your consignment. 

When required to do so you must also present your consignment to an authorised border control post (BCP) or to a control point for physical checks to be carried out, including consignments entering through Dover or other Channel ports.

Change to the use of document entry code 9115 with customs declaration

HMRC is phasing the withdrawal of the clearance code that is to be used with forestry material. Code C085 has been introduced as a replacement for 3  of the older document codes that are currently used in data element (DE) 2/3 of the customs declaration. There will be a period where both the new and older document codes can be used. 

Users of the Customs Declaration Service should begin using code C085 instead of 9115, before the older codes are phased out and removed from live systems. Updates will be communicated before the older codes are fully retired. All guidance will now refer to the new C085 code.

Trade should:

• communicate the forthcoming change to the person responsible for submitting customs declarations on your behalf 
• make changes to any templates used for customs declarations to remove 9115 and include the new C085 code 
• review the trade tariff  for regulated commodities to ensure you are using the correct document codes and waivers

Pre-notifications for the landing of regulated material should continue to be sent to the Forestry Commission as detailed in What to do if you import conifer wood from France or Armenia.

Other changes to phytosanitary rules

The Great Britain Plant Health Service have introduced Phytosanitary Conditions (Amendment) Regulations that came into force on 30 November 2025. This includes several updates to enhance biosecurity, such as new pest classifications, updated import requirements and technical amendments which are relevant to the import of regulated wood, wood products and isolated bark.    

Agrilus horni (known as the aspen root girdler) and the fungal pathogen Heterobasidion occidentale are both reclassified as quarantine pests.    

There is no new specific pest measure required for imports, but both these pests will be subject to increased awareness raising, surveillance and action on detection within Great Britain to protect biosecurity.   

There has been a change to the status of the bark beetles, Dendroctonus micans (Great spruce bark beetle) and Ips cembrae (large larch bark beetle). These are now deregulated and no longer considered to be pest free area quarantine pests.   

Recent surveillance evidence no longer supports the absence of these beetles in the pest free area (in the west of Scotland). The presence of these pests will impact the export of conifer roundwood, bark and cut conifers over three metres from the west of Scotland to countries that maintain a pest free area for these pests (Greece, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland).

Consignments containing regulated and non-regulated material

We have recently seen an increase in consignments where regulated and non-regulated materials are shipped together in the same freight container, with the regulated material loaded behind non‑regulated goods.   

This can restrict an inspectors ability to safely and effectively access the regulated material to carry out their checks, due to limited space within the container.   

To avoid delays, importers are strongly advised to ensure that regulated timber is packed so it is readily accessible for inspection on arrival. Poor loading arrangements may result in delays associated with unloading and re‑loading, or, in some cases, re‑export where BCP staff are unable to de‑van the container safely.

Action against sweet chestnut blight

Following confirmation of a sweet chestnut blight outbreak in parts of South Devon, we introduced restrictions to help prevent further spread of this disease. A new notice covering restrictions on the felling, killing and movement of sweet chestnut trees, including a map of the demarcated area, came into force on 2 April.

Timber plant passports for the movement of sweet chestnut wood with bark can no longer be issued. Instead, professional operators will need to apply to the Forestry Commission to obtain separate authorisations for the movement of relevant material by contacting sweetchestnutblight.authorisation@forestrycommission.gov.uk .

Contact us

For general border enquiries (including those relating to the import and export of wood and timber products), please contact plant.health@forestrycommission.gov.uk.

Read other editions of Plant health news from the Forestry Commission.