Provision of a Safety & Security Entry Summary (ENS) declarations was extended to EU traffic entering Great Britain on 31st January 2025. The submission of timely, complete and accurate ENS Safety declarations remains a legal requirement of the UK’s border security framework.
Many carriers and intermediaries have worked hard to meet those regulatory requirements. However, within the RoRo Accompanied and Road (Channel Tunnel) sectors, compliance remains unacceptable with the following fields:
- Identity of Means of Transport crossing the Border
- Container Number / Trailer Number
Those parties responsible for the Entry Summary declaration should review the completion of these fields and address any compliance issues by the 30th September 2026. Compliance issues relating to these fields that are identified after that date may result in further compliance action, up to and including customs civil penalties.
Where carriers or intermediaries have already received a warning letter or customs civil penalty in relation to these fields, they must act within the specific timeframe previously communicated to them. The 30 September 2026 deadline does not apply in those cases, and further compliance action may immediately be taken where the required action has not been completed.
Government have previously highlighted these unacceptable behaviours and explained the correct completion requirements in respect of these fields through this messaging channel on at least five previous occasions as well as provided information through other mediums.
Identity of Means of Transport crossing the Border
Examples of unacceptable behaviours include:
- Entering a holding value such as ‘Truck’
- Entering the Trailer Registration Number (TRN) instead of, or as well as the Vehicle Registration Number (VRN).
- Entering an incorrect VRN, including failure to make an amendment should those details change.
Use of special characters.Guidance on correct completion
- For accompanied roll-on roll-off, the Vehicle Registration Number to be included.
- Road (Channel Tunnel), the Vehicle Registration Number to be included.
- For unaccompanied roll-on roll-off, the IMO ship identification number to be included.
- These must be entered with no spaces or special characters
Container Number / Trailer Number
Examples of unacceptable behaviours include:
- Entering a holding value such as ‘Trailer’
- Leaving the Container Number / Trailer Number field blank.
- Entering the TRN incorrectly within the Identity of Means of Transport Crossing the Border field.
- Entering an incorrect TRN, including failure to make an amendment should those details change.
Guidance on correct completion
This field must be provided when containers or trailers are being moved. If a container is being moved on a trailer, then the container number should be entered into this field in preference to the Trailer Registration Number (TRN). The unique Container or trailer number (letters or numbers) which identifies the container/trailer is to be entered.
The Trailer number provided should be the trailer number registered with the respective national authority in the country of registration.
Actions required
Take appropriate action to ensure that you are compliant. When reviewing your compliance, you should refer to the ‘carrier/intermediary checklist’ and consider:
- Reviewing software integration and any system changes – Is your system populating the correct data, in the right format into the right data field?
- Ensure that your staff are sufficiently aware of Safety and Security data requirements – Do you have training processes in place for new and existing staff?
- Source all required information from your supply chain to support the declaration and make any amendments if required – Have you made your 3rd party partners aware of the requirements and established appropriate processes to ensure that the required information is captured?
Legal Responsibilities
- Legal responsibilities for submitting an Entry Summary (ENS) declaration sits with the operator of the active means of transport at the border.
- Legal responsibility for the accuracy of the Entry Summary (ENS) declaration generally resides with the party that lodges the ENS declaration.
- The legal requirement is that Entry Summary declarations must be submitted for all consignments in a timely manner and, be complete and accurate.
- Declarations can be amended at any time up until the goods arrive at the border, if any information changes.
Consequences – Customs Civil Penalties
The schedule of contraventions to the Regulations sets the following maximum civil penalties: This may be imposed for each contravention.
The following links provide detail around the current penalty amounts:
- Customs: schedule of contraventions from 1 January 2021 – GOV.UK
- The Customs Safety and Security (Penalty) Regulations 2019.
What to expect
A Warning letter is normally issued in the first instance. However, in circumstances where there are aggravating circumstances a Customs Civil Penalty may be issued without a Warning Letter.
Gov.uk
