UK customs declaration service: Move from CHIEF to CDS with AEB

As of September 30, 2022, import declarations are no longer managed in CHIEF and have moved to the new CDS system. Go to the next chapter to learn about your options for using CHIEF beyond this deadline as announced by HMRC in August 2022.

After November 30, 2023, export declarations are no longer possible in CHIEF and businesses will need to use CDS. The original deadline for this was March 31, 2023, however, HMRC announced on December 15, 2022 that it will grant exporters 8 months longer to move across from CHIEF to CDS. 

The use of CHIEF to submit import declarations for goods brought into Northern Ireland from outside the UK and the EU has been phased out earlier. Since October 31, 2021, the Customs Declaration Service has replaced CHIEF for such transactions. Since January 2021, importers must use CDS or, for all shipments into Northern Ireland from mainland GB, the Trader Support Service (TSS). To date, more than 47,000 businesses have registered for TSS since it's launch in 2020.  In the most recent update from October 3, 2022, the UK government has announced the extension of the Trade Support Service and it will now operate until the end of December 2023. 

The customs handling of import and export freight system CHIEF has been in use by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for nearly 30 years. Its core function is the processing of declarations to facilitate the international movement of goods between the UK and non-EU countries. Technology has advanced over the years and the CHIEF system cannot easily adapt to new requirements. Plans to retire CHIEF have therefore been underway for a long time – a successor project was eventually announced back in 2015 and a system provider was selected in 2016.

The decision to replace CHIEF with HMRC’s new customer declaration service CDS was made before the EU referendum, but developments since have been factored into the planning so that CDS is scaled to handle the increase in the volume of declarations resulting from Brexit. The customer declaration service CDS has been developed in consultation with the border industry and will provide a more secure and stable platform. CDS has the capacity and capability to grow in line with the UK’s trade plans and the system move is also expected to deliver savings for the taxpayer.

HMRC will be closing its customs handling of import and export freight system CHIEF on March 31, 2023. From this date, all businesses will need to declare goods through the new customs declaration service CDS. Ahead of the complete closure in March 2023, services on CHIEF will be withdrawn in two stages:

• September 30, 2022: Import declarations close on CHIEF (see above temporary permission option)
• November 30, 2023: Export declarations close on CHIEF / National Exports System (NES)

CHIEF is based on the Community Customs Code (CCC) and Single Administrative Document (SAD) Harmonisation rules (boxes). CDS is based on the Union Customs Code (UCC) and data integration and harmonization rules.

This means: It’s a move from using paper-based rules on CHIEF to data processing rules on CDS.

CHIEF declaration completion requirements can be found in the CHIEF Tariff (online). CDS declaration completion requirements can be found in the CDS Tariff (online), which includes separate sections for declaring imports, declaring exports, Inventory Imports, and inventory exports. 

This means: Using the correct tariff is essential. CDS declarations using the CHIEF tariff will be rejected. And declarations using CHIEF codes will be rejected, too, as the code does not exist on CDS.

CHIEF includes 68 Paper form multi-use boxes. CDS includes 91 Single use data elements.

This means: CHIEF declarations are tailored to paper completion and offer several boxes that accept data in a free text format. In the new customs declaration service CDS on the other hand, most data elements are restricted to code format except name and address fields. 3 boxes on CHIEF may equate up to 17 different data elements on CDS. Users making declarations need to populate all required data elements, depending on the selected declaration category, and if they do not select the appropriate data set, the declaration will be rejected.

CHIEF features 7-digit fixed Customs Procedure Codes (CPCs) for each goods item. CDS codes are split into two parts: a single 4-digit Procedure Code combined with up to 99 3-digit Additional Procedure Codes (APCs) for a single goods item.

This means: There is no 1:1 correlation between CHIEF CPCs and CDS Procedure Codes (PCs) / (APCs). CHIEF CPCs are unique to a goods item while CDS PCs / APCs are multiple, interchangeable combinations depending on circumstances. The Procedure Code is always the same in CDS regardless of the type of declaration, i.e. the same code is used on simplified, standard, and supplementary declaration types. As code lists are not the same for CHIEF and CDS, users making declarations are required to select the correct code or their declarations will fail.