On 21 January 2025, all member countries of the Common Transit Convention (CTC) introduced the final version of New Computerised Transit System (NCTS) Phase 5. These are known as the final state rules.

You can find all our transit updates on GOV.UK.

What’s changed — Previous Document Type

From 21 January 2025, with the implementation of final state rules, the N830 code used for Previous Document Type, should only be used at the house consignment level, and not used at the consignment item level. This aligns with guidance in the code list CL214, which specifies the acceptable types of previous documents.

What’s happened

Initially some CTC countries may not have implemented this rule correctly and this means some declarations are being submitted in other countries with the N830 code being entered at consignment item level.

This causes an error message, and rejection of messages sent to NCTS Phase 5 GB which prevents the movement from being closed at the Office of Destination. Additionally, this causes issues with the IE050 (anticipated transit record) and IE115 (anticipated transit record response) messages at Office of Transit.

Because the messages have been rejected by NCTS Phase 5 GB, the Movement Reference Number (MRN) cannot be validated in the Goods Movement Reference (GMR).

What you need to do

In the first instance, speak to your colleagues, partners and counterparts in other CTC countries and ask them to make sure they only use Previous Document Type code N830 at house consignment level.

If you are attempting to validate a transit MRN in GVMS and encountering issues, you may need to use the ‘SAD’ option in the GMR, however please note that this will place an automatic hold on those goods to allow Border Force to validate the goods at Office of Transit and Office of Destination.

What HMRC have done

We have contacted a number of other national administrations to ask for their support in ensuring they are implementing the correct rules.