Official Statistics

Summary of movements of goods into Northern Ireland from Great Britain 2022: methodology notes

Published 22 June 2023

Background

On 1st January 2021, the United Kingdom (UK) left the European Union (EU). From this date, declarations have been required for movements of goods into Northern Ireland (NI) from Great Britain (GB) under the Northern Ireland Protocol (NIP).

The UK and the EU have agreed the Windsor Framework, which establishes a new UK internal trade scheme based on commercial data-sharing for the movement of goods. All data reported within this release applies to periods before the Windsor Framework was implemented.

Data sources

The source of the Summary of movements of goods into Northern Ireland from Great Britain 2022 is provisional management information extracted from the Customs Declaration Service (CDS) administrative data

Methodology update

In the latter part of 2021 businesses were able to use the NIIMP additional information code. This code identifies goods moved into NI from GB that are not in free circulation or home use.

The 2021 data published as part of the Summary of movements of goods into Northern Ireland from Great Britain 2021 has been revised. Movements using NIIMP are now included in the 2021 information within this release.

Methodology for the Summary of movements of goods into Northern Ireland from Great Britain 2022

This section details how the data was extracted. For movements of goods into Northern Ireland from Great Britain, all criteria needed to be met:

Criteria

• The movement was declared to the Customs Declaration Service (CDS), either directly or via the Trader Support Service (TSS).

• The clearance date of the declaration was between 1st January 2021 and 31st December 2022.

• The declaration included an Additional Information (AI) header statement of NIDOM or NIIMP, defined in the “Definitions” section.

• The country of dispatch was Great Britain (GB).

• The Port of Entry was a Northern Ireland port. Unless goods are leaving inward processing or customs warehousing and entering free circulation where a port is not required.

• The declaration was a full declaration, defined in the “Definitions” section.

• The value of the goods item on a declaration was less then £100m. This is to remove likely errors and outliers. Any items remaining on the declaration have been included.

Relationship with other statistical publications

Northern Ireland Economic Trade Statistics (NIETS) survey data published by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA)

The NIETS survey is a National Statistics release produced by NISRA, based on an annual survey of local businesses’ trade with markets inside and outside Northern Ireland. Due to methodological differences, including collection methodology, timeliness, and coverage differences, the NIETS survey and this summary of movements of goods into Northern Ireland from Great Britain are not directly comparable.

Users should not compare the NIETS survey data published by NISRA and the data in this release.

Customs declarations for international trade in goods in 2022

Customs declarations for trade movements between Northern Ireland (NI) and Great Britain (GB) were excluded from the Customs declarations for international trade in goods this publication.

Data caveats and limitations

Clearance date was used to define the calendar year

The clearance date of a declaration was used to select declarations from the 2021 and 2022 annual periods. As this publication is based on the date the goods were cleared, and not when the goods were moved, these caveats should be noted:

• Goods moved in 2021 may have been reported on a declaration that was not received by HMRC until 2022. The data on this declaration would be recorded for the 2022 period.
• Goods moved in 2022 may be reported on a declaration that is submitted in 2023. The data on this declaration would be recorded for the 2023 period, and not included in this publication.

Caution is advised when drawing conclusions about the year-on-year changes of the movement of goods into Northern Ireland from Great Britain. The definition of this data is “Full declarations cleared by HMRC between 1st January 2021 and 31st December 2022 for movements of goods into Northern Ireland from Great Britain”.

Change in declaring behaviour over time

The declaring behaviour of businesses is not necessarily consistent over time. Businesses may increase or decrease the number of customs declarations they submit for equivalent volumes of goods for a variety of reasons, such as a change in the way they may use certain customs facilitations, bulk processing of declarations and they may do so at any point within a given period.

Simplified Frontier Declarations (SFD)

SFDs were excluded from this analysis to avoid duplication of data that was submitted on both the SFD and the subsequent supplementary declaration.

Parcel and postal movements are not included in this data

In almost all cases, goods sent from GB as parcel or postal movements to consumers in NI will not require a customs declaration. Declarations will only usually be required where the goods are either prohibited or restricted or are being sent from one business to another business where the value of the good is greater than £135.

HMRC has adopted this temporary approach to applying declaration requirements for the movement of goods in parcels (including by the Royal Mail Group and express carriers) since 1st January 2021. More details can be found on the Sending parcels to and from Northern Ireland guidance available on GOV.UK.

Whilst not required, business may choose to voluntary produce and submit declarations for these types of movements, which would appear in the administrative data used in this release.

Impact of Customs Warehousing and Inward Processing

Declarations for goods exiting a Customs Warehouse (CW) or Inward Processing (IP) and entering free circulation do not contain data for the original port of entry.

To mitigate this, where these declarations include the NIDOM additional information code, the country of dispatch was GB, and the Customs Procedure Code (CPC) denotes the movement as coming out of CW or IP, then these declarations were assumed to be a movement into NI from GB.

Data also includes declarations for goods both entering and exiting a Customs Warehouse, with the potential for more than one declaration being submitted for a single consignment of goods.

All figures are provisional and may be subject to change

Figures will remain static if the underlying declarations data recorded on CDS at the given date of extraction does not change.

Other data caveats and limitations

• Entry and exit location codes used within this release may not have equivalent trade data available in other trade in goods publications.
• Declarations that were pre-lodged but subsequently invalidated have not been included because HMRC was not notified that the goods had entered Northern Ireland.
• Entry Summary Declarations (ENS) do not feature in this release as they are not submitted to CDS.
• Any declarations that have been raised but not cleared between 1st January 2021 and 31st December 2022 have not been included in this release.
• Percentages in this publication have been calculated using the unrounded data. Percentages calculated by users from the rounded data will not match those presented.

Further information

• The collection of data for goods moving into NI from GB has only been required since 1st January 2021. This is due to the introduction of the Northern Ireland Protocol (NIP) and end of the Transition Period. Data before this time was not collected by HMRC.
• Users should not compare the NIETS survey data published by NISRA and the data in this release.
• The NIETS survey is a National Statistics release produced by NISRA, based on an annual survey of local businesses’ trade with markets inside and outside Northern Ireland. Due to methodological differences, including collection methodology, timeliness, and coverage differences, the NIETS survey and this summary of movements of goods into Northern Ireland from Great Britain are not directly comparable.

Definitions

Businesses

A business or individual using an Economic Operators Registration and Identification (EORI) number to engage with customs procedures in the movement of goods into Northern Ireland (NI) from Great Britain (GB).

Country of dispatch

The country from which the goods have been exported, depicted by a 2 digit alpha code e.g. GB.

Customs Declaration Service (CDS)

CDS supports making import and export declarations when moving goods into and out of the UK.

Clearance date

The date when the customs authority releases the goods having carried out any checks deemed necessary.

Customs procedure codes (CPC)

CPCs identify the customs and/or excise regimes which goods are being entered into or removed from (where this applies).

Customs Warehousing

A customs facilitation that allows businesses to store goods with duty or import VAT payments suspended. Goods are stored until they are either released into free circulation, re-exported or moved to another customs procedure.

Declaration

A declaration is an electronic submission of data which provides the legally required information about the goods being imported. A full declaration has been defined as one of the following declaration types:

• Standard customs declaration
• Supplementary declaration
• Supplementary declarations for Entry in Declarants Records (EIDR)

Inward Processing

A customs facilitation that allows businesses to delay or reduce import duties or VAT on goods that are being processed or repaired.

NIDOM

An additional information statement declared against items on a declaration of goods moved into NI from GB. This code identifies the goods have UK Domestic goods status. This excludes movements to NI from UK Special Fiscal Territories.

NIIMP

An additional information statement declared against items on a declaration of goods moved into NI from GB. This code identifies goods moved into NI from GB that are not in free circulation or home use. It can also be used for imports into NI from rest of world countries.

Northern Ireland port

The following ports have been defined as ports based in Northern Ireland (port codes have been supplied):

• Belfast (BEL & LCA),
• Belfast International Airport (BFS),
• Coleraine (CLR),
• George Best Belfast City Airport (BHD),
• Irish land boundary (ILB),
• Larne (BEL),
• Londonderry (LDY),
• Portrush (CLR),
• Warrenpoint (WPT).

Entry and exit location codes used within this release may not have equivalent trade data available in other trade in goods publications.

Trader Support Service (TSS)

The TSS was introduced as a free service by HMRC on 1st January 2021. The service acts as a customs intermediary to assist businesses in meeting the new legal requirement for movements of goods between NI and GB.