Guidance

General Notes on Reading Data Element Completion Rules

Updated 28 September 2024

This Data Element Completion Guide relates to Customs Declaration Service (CDS) Customs Clearance Requests ((CCR) inventory releases previously referred to as C21s) for export purposes only.

It does not cover completion instructions for:

• written import customs declarations
• written export customs declarations
• Customs Clearance Requests (CCR) for import purposes.

For data element completion guidance for written import and export customs declarations and import CCRs, please refer to the appropriate Declaration Completion Instructions.

Data element overview table

The table shown, at the start of each data item, identifies in column:

1. Which types of clearance request require the completion of the data element (Declaration Categories)
2. The number and type of characters allowed in the field (Field format)
3. The number of times the data element may be used at header level (Number of occurrences at header level)
4. The number of times the data element may be used at item level (Number of occurrences at item level)

For example:

Declaration Categories	Field format	No. of occurrences at header level	No. of occurrences at item level
C21e, C21e EIDR NOP	a2	1x	99x

Declaration Categories

The data element completion rules provided in this document indicate for which types (categories) of clearance requests the data element is required, for example, data element 1/1 needs to be completed for category: C21 exports (C21e).

The table below explains which Declaration Categories there are for export C21 Customs Clearance Requests (CCR):

Declaration Category	Description
C21e	(Air) Port Customs Clearance Request — Exports
C21e EIDR NOP	(Air) Port Customs Clearance Request — Exports released using Entry in Declarants Records (EIDR) where the export C21 is also used to provide the Notification of Presentation (NOP). The C21e EIDR NOP data set should only be used for inventory releases where a procedure code from the CDS Declaration Instructions for Exports, Appendix 1 is used. It must not be used for inventory releases using a Procedure Code from this collection (procedure codes commencing with 00).

Appendix 23: Declaration Category Data Sets provides a detailed breakdown of the specific data elements needed for each Declaration Category.

There are separate tables in Appendix 23 for the C21e and C21e EIDR NOP data sets.

The tables in Appendix 23 also provide a cross reference from the new element data number to the previous SADH box reference number for correlation purposes.

The data set tables in Appendix 23 also state whether the data element is mandatory in all cases, optional for the declarant or dependant on the circumstances being declared.

The data set tables in Appendix 23: Declaration Category Data Sets will also indicate which data elements may be excluded when an export safety and security summary declaration (EXS) waiver applies.

Field Format

The column showing field format in the table at the start of each data element indicates the requirements for the data type and the data length.

The codes for the data types are as follows:

• a: alphabetic
• n: numeric
• an: alphanumeric

The number following the code indicates the admissible data length.

The following further rules apply:

• If there are no dots between the character type indicator and the length of the field indicator, then the data element has a fixed length and the full number of characters must be completed. For example: a2 indicates that 2 alpha characters must be used.
• Where there are two dots before the length indicator mean that the data has no fixed length, but it can have up to a maximum number of digits, as specified by the length indicator. For example: an..4 indicates that a up to maximum of 4 alpha numeric characters may be used
• A comma in the field length means that the data element can include decimals, the digit before the comma indicates the maximum length of the data element. The digit after the comma indicates the maximum number of digits that may be used after the decimal point.

For example, n..16,2 means:

• The maximum field length is 16 digits
• A maximum of two decimal places may be used
• If both decimal places are used a maximum of 14 digits may be declared prior to the decimal place.
• If only 1 decimal place is used, a maximum of 15 digits may be declared prior to the decimal place.
• If no decimal places are used, the full 16 digits may be used to indicate the whole number.
• You cannot declare 16 digits plus 2 decimal places

Examples of field lengths and formats:

• a1: 1 alphabetic character, fixed length
• n2: 2 numeric characters, fixed length
• an3: 3 alphanumeric characters, fixed length
• a..4: up to 4 alphabetic characters
• n..5: up to 5 numeric characters
• an..6: up to 6 alphanumeric characters
• n..7,2: up to 7 numeric characters in total including maximum 2 decimal places.

Please Note:

Where the field specifies:

• Alpha characters only, it must be completed in upper case. For example “Field Length a2” to be completed in capitals i.e. GB.
• Alphanumeric fixed length code, it must be completed in upper case. For example, “Field Length an5” to be completed in capitals e.g. GEN45.
• Alphanumeric free text fields, these may be completed in upper or lower case

Data Groups

Within the Union Customs Code (EU Reg. No 952/2013 (UCC)) the declaration data elements are grouped into sections:

Group	Description
1	Message Information (including Procedure Codes)
2	References of Messages, Document, Certificates and Authorisations
3	Parties
4	Valuation Information and Taxes
5	Dates, Times, Periods, Places, Countries and Regions
6	Goods Identification
7	Transport Information (Modes, Means and Equipment)
8	Other Data Elements (Statistical Data, Guarantees and Tariff Related Data)

Each data element will begin with the number of the Data Group it belongs to, for example, exporter identification number, which is included under ‘Data Group 3: Parties’ begins with number 3. Its data element number is DE 3/2.