The Windsor Framework – shipping arrangements for goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Further to the finalisation of the Windsor Framework there are now scheduled, simplified changes to shipping arrangements for goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland – this will come into effect from 30^th September 2024.

General guidance from HMRC is available HERE.

The procedure for B2C and B2B will be much more straightforward than current rules.

B2C Changes:

Businesses sending parcels from Great Britain to consumers for personal use in Northern Ireland  do not need to be registered in any scheme to do so. Nor do the consumers need to be registered in any scheme.

A declaration or commodity code will no longer be required for the shipment. You will simply need to supply us with a description of the goods – this description needs to be accurate and specific – simply stating “goods”, “gifts”, “samples” or “parts” etc will not suffice. The type of product and quantity needs to be stated e.g. “shampoo”, “book”, “hairbrush” etc.

There will be no customs declarations, tariffs or presentation of goods to customs when parcels are sent direct to consumers.

B2B Changes

Business to Business movements destined for Northern Ireland will move in line with the processes in place for freight from September 30^th, 2024.

To ship goods that are not considered “at risk” of entering the EU from within the UK internal market system (i.e. via Northern Ireland) either you (as the sending business) or your client (the receiving business) will need to be authorised under the new UK Internal Market Scheme (UKIMS) which will check whether you meet the criteria for moving goods under this scheme. You will need to provide us with your UKIMS registration number for each shipment to Northern Ireland.

You can find out more about UKIMS HERE.

You do need to be EORI registered to apply for UKIMS and applications are now open.

Once you have a UKIMS number, after September 30^th, 2024 this needs to be supplied for each shipment moving to Northern Ireland as a B2B parcel. You will no longer need to supply commodity codes but they will be helpful,  but you will need to supply the EORI and UKIMS as the sender and the EORI and UKIMS (if available) for the recipient along with a value of the goods and a description of the goods (not a generic description such as “samples” but specific identification such as “shampoo” or “book” etc).

Example of simplified dataset required (please note commercial invoices will not be required):

If you do not register for UKIMS then the current customs process and duties and taxes will be applied as for movements in the EU.