Getting approval to operate a customs border location in the UK

Question

Accepted Answer

A border location is an international boundary or first control point, where the movement of goods coming into or leaving a country can be controlled.

Any border location that handles goods coming into or leaving the UK, must be an approved area and have a customs approval given by Border Force or HMRC before any goods are moved in or out.

A border location can be either:

a wharf
an airport
a rail terminal

A location’s customs approval sets out the conditions for operating a wharf, an airport or a rail terminal. This is to make sure goods coming into or leaving the UK meet customs requirements.

There may be extra requirements to apply to operate a customs border location in Northern Ireland. HMRC will tell you what these requirements are when you apply.

Who can operate a customs approved border location

You can apply to operate a customs approved border location if both of the following apply:

you are the operator of a wharf, airport or rail terminal
you dispatch or receive goods or freight into or from the UK

An operator could be the owner of the location, or any other party that has direct control over operations at the location — for example, a leaseholder.

Operators can work with or employ third parties under commercial agreements to make sure they meet approval requirements. In these circumstances the approved operator remains legally responsible for complying with the terms and conditions of the approval.

The conditions of an approval will be different depending on how you operate at your location. To operate any location you must make sure that:

all goods imported or exported are presented and declared to customs
HMRC or Border Force can intervene to carry out checks and risk assessments on any imports, exports or transit movements that need documentary or physical checks
goods are not removed from the border location without customs clearance, or approval from HMRC or Border Force
HMRC is told when goods being exported have left the country
suitable accommodation and facilities are provided for customs checks

Approvals you can apply for to handle goods being imported into the UK

A wharf, airport or rail terminal can get approval to operate:

temporary storage
pre-lodgement
a bespoke arrangement
a combination of temporary storage, pre-lodgement or a bespoke arrangement

Temporary storage

Temporary storage facilities allow goods to be stored temporarily under customs control before they are:

released to free circulation
re-exported outside the UK
placed under a customs special procedure

To operate a temporary storage facility, you’ll need to:

have an inventory linking system in place — inventory linking systems are operated by Community System Providers
make sure that you have received notification of any goods arriving within 3 hours of them arriving
make sure that goods are not released from the facility until customs have authorised their release
apply to operate a temporary storage facility

Certain types of goods cannot be moved away from the border to inland temporary storage facilities until checks have taken place at the border. These goods include things like firearms, endangered species, plants and products of animal origin.

You can use the goods vehicle movement service at border locations operating temporary storage, to make sure import declarations are in place before goods depart for the UK and to trigger the arrival of the declaration before the goods arrive.

Pre-lodgement

Pre-lodgement is for locations that may not have the space and infrastructure to store goods when they arrive.

The goods vehicle movement service supports this model.

To operate pre-lodgement, you’ll need to:

make sure goods do not arrive at the border location without a pre-lodged declaration — you would do this by asking for the location to be listed as a location that needs a declaration to be submitted before goods depart for the UK
take reasonable steps to make sure those goods identified as needing checks are controlled when they arrive

A bespoke arrangement

In exceptional cases, if operating temporary storage or pre-lodgement is not appropriate for your specific circumstances, you can propose operating a bespoke arrangement to HMRC.

Bespoke arrangements will only be considered on a case-by-case basis. For example, usually for border locations that:

are government run, for example, a military base
handle the types of goods where details about the quantities are unknown on arrival
handle the arrival of high volumes of very low value consignments
do not handle the arrival of goods very often and where those goods are of low fiscal value

Your proposal must show how you will guarantee to HMRC that the goods arriving:

will be presented to customs within 3 hours of arriving at the border location
are not allowed to leave until customs have authorised their release

A combination of temporary storage, pre-lodgement or bespoke

It is possible to operate a combination of temporary storage, pre-lodgement or bespoke arrangements in different parts of a border location. This is known as a ‘mixed model’.

To operate a mixed model, you’ll need to meet the relevant requirements for each approval. This may involve agreeing how different approvals can interact between each other to make sure requirements are met.

Approvals you can apply for to handle goods being exported from the UK

Locations that need an export declaration to have been submitted as ‘pre-lodged’

This means the declaration must have been submitted before the goods are presented to customs at the UK border location.

This is the process for exports that most border locations use. To operate this process, you must make sure that goods are not exported from the UK unless authorised by HMRC.

You’ll need either an inventory linked system, the goods vehicle movement service or other approved service, to make sure that:

a notification is sent to HMRC to confirm the goods have arrived at the border location
HMRC have checked the declaration and authorised the goods to leave the UK
a notification is sent to HMRC confirming the goods have left the UK

If you do not use the goods vehicle movement service or inventory linked system, you or any third parties carrying out operations at your location will need to get an approved loader role. You can get an approved loader role by emailing HMRC at: exportpresentationapprovals@hmrc.gov.uk.

You can apply to HMRC to use approved inland premises to get goods cleared before they travel to your location. To do this you would need to apply for either:

Customs Supervised Exports approval
Designated Export Place approval

Locations that need an export declaration to have been submitted as ‘arrived’

This means that the declaration must be submitted as ‘arrived’ before the goods have left the location where they first start their journey.

This is the process for exports that is only used at some locations, where HMRC has decided that declarations cannot be submitted as pre-lodged.

You’ll need the goods vehicle movement service to make sure that:

HMRC have authorised the goods to leave the UK
a notification is sent to HMRC confirming the goods have left the UK