Official Statistics

Summary of movements of goods into Northern Ireland from Great Britain 2023: methodology notes

Published 25 June 2024

Background

On 1 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. This release relates to the previous Northern Ireland Protocol, and should not be used to draw conclusions about future trading arrangements.

Data sources

The source of the Summary of movements of goods into Northern Ireland from Great Britain 2023 is provisional management information extracted from the Customs Declaration Service (CDS) administrative database.

Methodology update

The data published as part of the 2022 Summary of movements of goods into Northern Ireland from Great Britain was revised for this 2023 publication.

Declarations which contained other additional information codes, but not ‘NIDOM’ or ‘NIIMP’ were previously not considered as part of this publication. A small number of declarations have now been identified as moving into NI from GB without the NIDOM or NIIMP code. We have revised our method to include these in this year’s publication.

The updated methodology now includes all movements of goods into Northern Ireland ports where the country of dispatch is Great Britain. This is regardless of the presence of NIDOM or NIIMP.

Methodology for the Summary of movements of goods into Northern Ireland from Great Britain 2023

This section details how the data was extracted. The following 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 1 January 2022 and 31 December 2023
• the declaration was a full declaration, defined in the Definitions section
• the country of dispatch was Great Britain
• the port of entry was a Northern Ireland port

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

If goods are leaving inward processing or customs warehousing and entering free circulation, then a port code is not required. These movements have been identified separately where:

• the relevant Customs Procedure Code has been used
• the port of entry field has been left blank
• the country of dispatch is Great Britain
• the NIDOM Additional Information (AI) code has been used

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 declarants and declaration volumes for international trade in 2023

Customs declarations for trade movements between Northern Ireland and Great Britain are excluded from the Customs declarants and declaration volumes for international trade 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 2022 and 2023 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 2022 may have been reported on a declaration that was not received by HMRC until 2023. The data on this declaration would be recorded for the 2023 period.

Goods moved in 2023 may be reported on a declaration that is submitted in 2024. The data on this declaration would be recorded for the 2024 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 1 January 2022 and 31 December 2023 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 a variety of reasons and at any point within a given period.

These could include a change in the way certain customs facilitations are used, choosing bulk processing of declarations or use of the TSS or other intermediary services to submit declarations.

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 Great Britain as parcel or postal movements to consumers in Northern Ireland 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 1 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, declarations were assumed to be a movement into NI from GB. If they met the following criteria: Where the NIDOM additional information code was present, the country of dispatch was Great Britain, and the Customs Procedure Code (CPC) used denotes the movement as coming out of CW or IP.

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 (also known as ENS) declarations do not feature in this release as they are not submitted to CDS
• any declarations that have been raised but not cleared between 1 January 2022 and 31 December 2023 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

Official statistics publication

This release includes provisional management information for the calendar years 2022 and 2023. It reports on the movements of goods into Northern Ireland (NI) from Great Britain (GB).

Now that the UK has left the EU, it is important that our statistics continue to be of high quality. All releases continue to be produced in accordance with the UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice for Statistics as well as internationally agreed statistical guidance and standards.

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to. The Customs importer and exporter population complies with this legislation in the following ways:

Trustworthiness

• the publication is released in an open and transparent manner; adhering to a published schedule with timely announcements
• concise commentary is provided to supplement tables which some users may find challenging to interpret
• statistics and explanatory material are presented impartially and objectively
• all relevant data notes and caveats are clearly stated alongside the data
• all material is accessible in line with Government Digital Service (GDS) guidance
• comparisons to the previous year are used to put the data into context
• suitable data visualisations are included to aid appropriate interpretation of the statistics, whilst also adhering to the GDS guidelines

Quality

• administrative data taken from customs declarations is used to create this publication.
• data sources, exclusions, methods, and definitions are provided in a methodology document published with this release
• data is compared to previous releases of this publication to ensure reliability, and detection of outliers
• standardised definitions are used throughout this publication and are available in the methodology document published with this release

Value

• detailed data tables and summary statistics are equally available to all via the gov.uk website
• suitable data visualisations and commentary are included to aid appropriate understanding and interpretation of the statistics
• by engaging with new technology and ongoing updates to our best practice, we work to improve these statistics each year
• other related statistics and data sources are signposted with explanations of their consistency and comparability to this publication
• advice about the appropriate use of these statistics is provided in the publication and in the methodology document published with this release

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards by emailing uktradeinfo@hmrc.gov.uk

Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

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, for example 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)

CPC 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 ports

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 1 January 2021. The service acts as a customs intermediary to assist businesses in meeting the new legal requirement for movements of goods into and out of Northern Ireland.