Goods remaining on board vessels or aircraft
Information about goods remaining on board vessels or aircraft.
Goods that are intended for use on board vessels or aircraft by the crew or passengers during a journey are covered by the ships and aircraft stores processes. These goods are declared ‘by conduct’ set aside for ships stores, and the act of moving the goods satisfies customs requirements, there is no need for an electronic declaration or other customs processes at import or export.
If the vessel is to remain inside the 12 nautical mile limit, declarations are not required.
Stores are defined as goods for use on a vessel and includes fuel and spare parts and other articles of equipment integral to the running of the vessel or for the comfort of passengers or crew members onboard. They include:
- goods for use on a vessel which arrives from, or leaves for a destination outside the UK, including the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) (for example, fuel, spare parts or tools for use on the vessel)
- goods sold as retail to passengers or crew onboard (for example, memorabilia and other commercial items)
- goods for consumption onboard (for example, food or drink)
An installation is not classed as a vessel. Goods that are intended for use on installations and remaining on board a vessel or aircraft travelling between Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and the UKCS will be subject to export and import declarations. This is because they are travelling out of or into the UK’s customs territory. Where more goods are exported from Great Britain than are needed by an installation or installations, the remainder of the goods returning to shore in Great Britain must be declared as an import.
A vessel is loaded with a spare generator to use on the support ship and 100 litres of diesel to run it. This is treated as ships stores.
The vessel is also loaded with 10,000 rolls of paper towels (UK produced) among other food and supplies, which are declared using a declaration by conduct on export. The installation rejects 9,000 of the rolls as they can only store 1,000 of them. The returning rolls must be declared as a re-import and included either on a Customs Declaration Service (CDS) declaration, a g-form or the National Maritime Single Window service (FAL) or General Aviation Report (GAR) form.
A vessel undertaking a schedule of daily sailings to a number of wind farm installations carrying out routine maintenance loads up with 500 barrels of rust resistant paint. The barrels are opened and used as necessary but not offloaded either at the installation or while the vessel is in port.
In this example, the export of the 500 barrels of paint must be declared either using CDS, a g-form or the FAL or GAR form. If full or partially full barrels are offloaded when the vessel reaches a port, this should be treated as an import. Empty barrels can be treated as reusable packaging. Read more about declaring reusable packaging for Great Britain imports and exports.