Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme: groupage and mixed load consignments
How to move groups of agrifood products from Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) to Northern Ireland, which may include consignments of Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme (NIRMS) goods and consignments of non-NIRMS goods.
This guidance is for traders and hauliers who are moving a mix of goods moved under NIRMS and goods moved under Official Controls Regulations (OCR) within grouped loads (known as ‘groupage’) from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
Find out which products can be moved under the Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme (NIRMS).
The guidance includes the steps to take to use the certification and standards benefits of the NIRMS when moving a mix of NIRMS-compliant goods and non-NIRMS goods (which will be subject to full Official Control regulations (OCR) controls).
You can read existing guidance on moving groups of agrifood products from Great Britain to Northern Ireland under full OCR compliance.
What is groupage
Groupage is where either:
- groups of products collected from 2 companies or more are transported in a single sealed container
- a single company is moving a mix of goods moved under the NIRMS and goods moved under OCR
Under the Windsor Framework you can continue to move goods using any of the following groupage methods:
If you use a haulier to transport your goods, you should agree with them which model you should use for the movement, and therefore whether they will need to register for NIRMS.
Moving multiple consignments under the NIRMS
To move grouped consignments under the NIRMS, both the business listing the Establishment of Departure (the ‘consignor’) and business listing the Establishment of Destination (the ‘consignee’) must be members of the NIRMS.
All consignments in the load must be NIRMS compliant.
Businesses may need to register multiple Establishments of Departure and Destination if sending goods to or from several addresses.
Consignor actions
After contacting the haulier to arrange the movement of goods, the consignor will:
- complete a General Certificate (GC) for the consignment
- provide a packing list with your GC
- submit both the GC and the packing list, confirming consignment meets the scheme conditions
- send the GC and attachments to the Consignee in Northern Ireland, who will raise a Common Health Entry Document (CHED)
Each GC will include one Establishment of Departure and Establishment of Destination. If a consignor is sending goods to separate traders or establishments, you will need a GC for each consignment.
Consignee actions
Once the GC and all attachments have been received from the consignor, the consignee will produce a retail movement CHED using TRACES-NT, at least 4 hours in advance of arrival in Northern Ireland, and attach the GC (including seal number) and packing list.
When completing the CHED, the person responsible for the goods in Northern Ireland should enter: - the word ‘Groupage’ in box 1.3 - the estimated time of arrival in the NI port In box 1.10 - the trailer number in box 1.13
The Northern Ireland destination business must inform DAERA of the arrival of the goods at the Northern Ireland listed establishment within 48 hours as is currently the case under STAMNI
Sealing your NIRMS consignment (and if all consignments on lorry are NIRMS consignments)
All consignments must be sealed with an authorised seal under appropriate supervision. The seal must have a unique identifier with associated number, and the number must be included in the GC.
DAERA will complete all verifications of the seals in line with the requirements of the scheme.
To assist with identity processes of groupage consignments, a paper duplicate of the consignors’ commercial seal must be attached to the outside of the consignment.
When the load is complete, the haulier will seal the lorry.
Completing the consignor and consignee steps before arriving in Northern Ireland will help the grouped load move quickly through the Northern Ireland Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Inspection Facility.
Procedure for a mixed load of NIRMS and non NIRMS consignments
If the grouped load contains a mix of NIRMS compliant goods and consignments which are not eligible for the NIRMS, the lorry as a whole cannot benefit from all the facilitations under the NIRMS.
However the goods which do meet IRMS requirements will still benefit from moving under a general certificate, rather than requiring veterinary signed health certification for all individual products, as well as the ability to move under the relevant UK standards that scheme applies where applicable. For example, chilled meats can still move in mixed loads where the relevant consignment within the truck was moving under NIRMS.
For mixed loads, the consignments in the load which do not meet the NIRMS requirements will need to meet OCR sealing requirements. Where a lorry or container contains non-NIRMS consignments, it must also meet those sealing requirements and any other relevant OCR control procedures.
Depending on the nature of the goods, they may also be able to benefit from the customs elements of the Green Lane and therefore be declared ‘not at risk’ for tariff purposes’.