Notice

NTE 2024/19: Customs Declaration Service (CDS) exports – important information

Published 23 August 2024

Introduction

Customs Declaration Service exports – important information for declarants who export goods under a licence

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are aware of some temporary issues with licence data flows between the Custom Declaration Service (CDS) and the Department for Business and Trade’s (DBT) electronic licensing systems (SPIRE/LITE). These issues occur when a CDS exports declaration contains errors which affect the licence. As a result, the declaration cannot progress to a cleared status.

Best practice when submitting a CDS declaration and declaring a licence

Check you are quoting the correct licence reference in Data Element (DE) 2/3 and have entered the exact characters, removing any whitespace characters such as spaces.

Do not use document status codes ‘EE’ (Electronic Exhausted) or ‘ES’ (Electronic Surrendered) on CDS (DE 2/3) unless you wish to exhaust or surrender the licence. Instead, you are advised to use document status code ‘EP’ (Electronic Partial).

In addition, declarants must ensure that the details within DE 2/3 have been completed correctly before the declaration is submitted, ensuring that:

• the quantity for the licence must not be zero, unless you want to delete an existing reservation; if no reservation exists an issue will occur and the declaration cannot be amended or deleted, and you will need to submit a new declaration
• the measurement unit for the quantity matches the measurement unit associated to the licence
• if a document status code applies, the same document status code must be used for all goods items in the declaration

Additionally, if you need to declare a commodity that requires 2 document status codes for the same licence, please use the following instructions for DE 2/3.

First document status code

For the first document status code, enter information as per CDS export tariff with the relevant and valid code in the status code field. To determine the correct code, please refer to the following guidance: Group 2: References of Messages, Document, Certificates and Authorisations.

Second document status code

For the second document status code, refer to the following steps.

1. Enter text ‘License declared against [enter first status code]’ in the Document Identifier field.
2. Enter code ‘XW’ in the Document Status field.
3. Enter text ‘License declared against [enter first status code]’ in the Reason field.
4. Leave the Issuing Authority field blank.
5. Leave the Date of Validity field blank.
6. Leave the Measurement Unit and Qualifier fields blank.
7. Enter ‘0’ in the Quantity field.

What to do if your declaration is ‘stuck’ in a registered state (no DMSACC received)

If there is a discrepancy with DE 2/3, your declaration will not be rejected and will remain stuck in a ‘received’ state. In addition, if your goods have arrived at the frontier, the Community System Provider (CSP) or carrier will not receive any response notifications and your goods will not gain P2P.

At this point, you may be notified by the carrier that there is an issue and that you need to take action. You must not attempt to amend the declaration as this will not rectify the issue and could cause your licence usage to be stored incorrectly.

Instead, you must invalidate your declaration and submit a new declaration using a new Declaration Unique Consignment Reference (DUCR) and Local Reference Number (LRN).

If your goods have been consolidated into a Master Unique Consignment Reference (MUCR), when you invalidate your declaration your (DUCR) will be automatically disassociated from the MUCR. You must alert your carrier and arrange for your goods to be removed from the consolidation. Please correspond with your carrier and freight forwarder or intermediary for guidance if necessary.

If you have attempted to amend a declaration that has a licence error, the declaration will remain in a ‘received’ state and not progress to ‘registered’ or ‘accepted’. You will need to submit a new declaration and contact HMRC for a correction to be applied to the licence reservation.

If there is a discrepancy with DE 2/3 when declaring a commodity that requires 2 document status codes for the same licence, your declaration will be rejected and you will need to follow to the corrective guidance described below for error code ‘CDS70719 Licence Error: Electronic licence quoted although Document Status Code indicated paper licence’.

Please note that the scenarios listed under each of the following error codes are not exhaustive lists. We have only listed common scenarios. If you have encountered another scenario not listed, please contact HMRC.

What to do if you have received error code ‘CDS70740 Licence Error: Importer/Exporter is not the owner of the licence’

This error may occur if the Economic Operators Registration and Identification (EORI) number attributed to the licence does not match the EORI declared in the declaration. You will need to contact HMRC for a correction to be applied if possible.

You will need to submit a new declaration once you have been contacted to confirm your issue is resolved.

What to do if you have received the error code ‘CDS70711 Licence Error: Electronic licence does not exist’

In this scenario, you should log onto SPIRE/LITE and check the following steps.

1. Ensure your license exists and is valid. If your licence does not exist, apply for a new licence using SPIRE/LITE.

2. Check that the measurement quantity unit that you have declared in DE 2/3 of your CDS export declaration is listed in appendix 20 of the CDS tariff.

If the measurement quantity unit on your licence is not listed in appendix 20 (for example, international units), you will need to contact the Department for Business and Trade to request for the licence to be re-issued with a licence measurement quantity unit listed on appendix 20 of the CDS tariff.

Once the licence is re-issued with a valid measurement quantity unit, you can submit a new declaration and declare the new licence measurement quantity unit in DE 2/3, determining the correct code to use from appendix 20 of the CDS exports tariff.

What to do if you have received error code ‘CDS70761 Licence has insufficient quantity remaining to meet claim’

In this scenario, you should check the following steps.

1. Log onto SPIRE/LITE to check your licence has sufficient quantity to export your goods.
2. If your licence has sufficient quantity, check your CDS declaration to see if you have declared document status code ‘EE’ (Electronic Exhausted) or ‘ES’ (Electronic Surrendered) details in DE 2/3.

If you have insufficient quantity left on your licence or you have incorrectly declared the document status code, do not contact the Department for Business and Trade. Instead, you will need to apply for a new licence.

If you have declared document status code ‘EE’ (Electronic Exhausted) or ‘ES’ (Electronic Surrendered) details in DE 2/3, please contact HMRC to inform them you have encountered this issue.

If you need to apply open general export licences (OGEL), you will need to register for a new OGEL licence from the government website.

There is no application for an OGEL. You will be provided with a new GBOGE licence reference number and will be required to declare EP against your new licence in DE 2/3.

For any other type of licence, you will be required to re-apply for a new licence. This may require vetting and may take some time to be authorised and issued.

What to do if you have received ‘CDS71216 Transaction not permitted: Licence is inactive and no longer available for use’

This error can occur when a licence is exhausted and is now inactive and unavailable for use. For example, if you have previously submitted a CDS MRN with this licence and declared document status code EE (Electronic Exhausted) or ES (Electronic Surrendered) details in DE 2/3, accidentally exhausting your licence.

You should check the most recently accepted MRN to determine whether you have declared document status code EE (Electronic Exhausted) or ES (Electronic Surrendered) details in DE 2/3

If you have previously exhausted your licence, by declaring EE or ES in DE 2/3 in a previous MRN, you must re-apply for a licence. Do not contact the Department of Business and Trade. Instead, please contact HMRC via the following link to inform HMRC you have encountered this issue.

If you need to apply for an OGEL you will need to register for a new OGEL licence from the government website here: Open general export licences (OGELs) - GOV.UK

There is no application for an OGEL. You will be provided with a new GBOGE licence reference number and will be required to declare ‘EP’ against your new licence in DE 2/3.

For any other type of licence, you will be required to re-apply for a new licence. This may require vetting and could take some time to be authorised and issued.

What to do if you have received ‘CDS70719 Licence Error: Electronic licence quoted although Document Status Code indicated paper licence’.

In this scenario, you should check the following steps.

1. The document status code declared in the declaration is correct according to the type of licence held. You can determine this by following this guidance. If so, resubmit your declaration using the correct document status code.
2. If you have declared a commodity code that requires 2 document status codes for the same licence but have not followed best practice, you will need to resubmit your declaration ensuring that you follow the best practice guidance detailed on this page.

What to do if you have received an error code mentioned on this page and your goods are at the border

If the resolution to the issue you have encountered requires you to apply for a new licence or requires HMRC or DBT intervention, you have the option of withdrawing your goods in land while waiting for your issue to be resolved. Since your declaration has been rejected, you do not need HMRC approval to withdraw in land.

HMRC are working with DBT to resolve these issues and will notify traders once resolved or if there are any further updates to the guidance on this page. In the meantime, we ask that declarants follow this temporary guidance.