Making an entry summary declaration
Last updated 22 November 2024
You’ll need to make an entry summary declaration before the goods arrive if you’re transporting goods into:
- Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales)
- Northern Ireland from Great Britain
- Northern Ireland from outside the EU
The entry summary declaration will have safety and security information about your goods.
Your entry summary declaration must be complete, accurate, and submitted before you arrive at the border. You can amend your declaration at any time until your goods arrive at the UK border, if any information changes, such as the amount of goods or the time of the sea crossing.
Before you submit a declaration
To submit your declaration, you must be registered for either the:
- Safety and Security (S&S GB) service for bringing goods into Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales)
- Import Control System Northern Ireland (ICS NI) for bringing goods into Northern Ireland
- Import Control System (ICS2) which is replacing ICS NI, for bringing goods into Northern Ireland by:
- air from 1 March 2023
- rail, road and maritime from 3 June 2024 depending on the mode of transport
Safety and security declarations for EU imports will be required from 31 January 2025. Until then, you do not need to make an entry summary declaration for goods imported from the EU and other territories from which a declaration was not required before 1 January 2021.
The other territories where the entry summary declaration waiver applies to are:
- Andorra
- Ceuta and Melilla
- Heligoland
- Liechtenstein
- Monaco
- Norway
- San Marino
- Switzerland
- the municipalities of Livigno Campione d’Italia
- the Italian national waters of Lake Lugano, which are between the bank and the political frontier of the area between Ponte Tresa and Porto Ceresio
- the Vatican City State
Goods that do not need an entry summary declaration
You do not need to make an entry summary declaration for goods if you are:
- bringing or receiving them into Northern Ireland from an EU country
- moving qualifying Northern Ireland goods from Northern Ireland to Great Britain
- importing goods to Great Britain from the EU (or other countries when this was not previously required)
Some goods also do not need a declaration, including those that are:
- electrical energy
- entering by pipeline
- letters, postcards and printed material, including those on electronic media
- in a traveller’s personal luggage
- declared to customs orally
You can find a more detailed list in Article 104 of the retained Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446.
When to submit
Depending on the type of transport or shipping service you have used, there are different time limits for submitting your declaration.
| How you’re shipping goods | When to submit (minimum timing requirement) |
|---|---|
| Maritime containerised cargo | at least 24 hours before loading at the port of departure |
| Maritime bulk or break bulk cargo | at least 4 hours before arrival |
| Short straits sea voyages | at least 2 hours before arrival |
| Short-haul flights - less than 4 hours’ duration | at the time of actual take-off |
| Long-haul flights | at least 4 hours before arrival |
| Rail and inland waterways | at least 2 hours before arrival |
| Road traffic | at least 1 hour before arrival |
If you’re using Goods Vehicle Movement Service
The inclusion of any safety and security declaration reference numbers in the Goods Vehicle Movement Service is an optional step. There will be no impact on any vehicles moving without this.
If you choose to include safety and security declaration reference numbers in the Goods Vehicle Movement Service, you’ll need to submit your entry summary declaration at the earliest of either:
- the minimum timing requirement
- before check in closes
This is to allow for the movement reference number from the entry summary declaration to be recorded in the goods movement reference, which will be validated by the carrier at check in.
Find out more about the Goods Vehicle Movement Service.
Short straits sea voyages
For short straits sea journeys, safety and security import declarations will have to be submitted at least 2 hours pre-arrival for both containerised and non-containerised imports.
Short straits sea journeys into Great Britain refers to journeys from:
- the English Channel, or the Atlantic coast of Europe from the point where it meets the English Channel to and including the port of Algeciras
- Norway
- Ireland
- the Faroe Islands
- Iceland
- ports on the Baltic Sea and the North Sea
Short straits sea journeys into Northern Ireland refers to journeys from:
- Greenland
- the Faroe Islands
- Norway
- Iceland
- ports on the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea
- all ports of Morocco
How to submit
To submit your declaration use the:
- S&S GB service for bringing goods into Great Britain
- Import Control System for bringing goods into Northern Ireland
You will need to provide documents and licences for your import.
You will also need information about the:
- goods description or commodity code
- consignor and consignee (true seller and true buyer)
- type, amount and packaging of your goods
- mode of transport at the border
- onward journey details
To submit an entry summary declaration of imports into Great Britain, you will also need to know the S&S GB location code for the port of entry.
After you submit
Once your entry summary declaration is accepted, you will be issued with a movement reference number.
If you are moving goods through a port which does not have an inventory linked system, you must generate a goods movement reference using the Goods Vehicle Movement Service. You can choose to submit any safety and security declaration movement reference numbers in the goods movement reference, although this step is optional.
Read more about how to move goods through ports that use the Goods Vehicle Movement Service.
What happens next
The declaration will be risk assessed and the results will be used by the UK Border Force to identify either:
- shipments they wish to prevent being loaded onto the vessel entering Great Britain and Northern Ireland (for deep sea containerised maritime cargo only)
- imports that they may wish to control on entering Great Britain and Northern Ireland
If you get a ‘Do Not Load’ message, the UK Border Force will tell you what to do.
For goods moving into Northern Ireland, if a vessel or aircraft diverts to a different Office of First Entry, you’ll need to submit a diversion request as soon as you know about the diversion. Once your goods arrive in Northern Ireland, you must submit an arrival notification.
Find out more about the customs declarations you can make when bringing your goods to the UK.
Making an amendment
Your declaration must be accurate and complete when submitted to the best of your knowledge. However, you can make an amendment if something changes, like the amount of goods or the time of the sea crossing, for example.
The time limits for the lodging of the declaration do not start again after the amendment since, legally, it is the initial declaration that sets them. Amendments can only be made up until the point of arrival in the UK.
There is no cancellation message for either S&S GB service or Import Control System. Submitted declarations can be amended but not cancelled.
An amendment contains all the data of the original declaration plus any amendment made and is linked to the first entry. Where goods are no longer to be shipped it is not necessary to inform the S&S GB service or Import Control System.
For declarations into ICS2, if goods will no longer be imported into Northern Ireland the submitted ENS declaration will need to be revoked.