Fishery products import process & ALVS

Fishery products import process & ALVS

  From the 13 January 2015 the Customs clearance of all imports of fishery products in the UK will be routed through the Automatic Licence Verification System (ALVS). As a result of this, Port Health are making some changes to our process for imports of fishery products. What is changing:-

• For fishery imports that do not require a catch certificate (out of scope of IUU requirements) we will not be sending you any information - it is no longer required.
• where catch certificate checks have been completed we be sending a document which indicates the certificates that have been checked and the outcome of the checks.  We will not be sending back copies of the certificates.

Importing fishery products that do not require a catch certificate

Fishery products that are out of scope of the IUU regulation will not be able to gain Customs clearance automatically unless they are declared as out of scope.  To declare that your consignment is out of scope, you will need to use the following details on your Customs entry:-

• document code of Y927
• document status of XX
• Reference details i.e. GBIUUNOTREQUIRED

You should not declare Additional Information code LIC99 Using the document code Y927 will mean that the item will be excluded from ALVS for the IUU check. If you are unsure if your consignment needs an IUU, check with Port Health. If you import fishery products that are subject to catch certificate checks, we have changed the information that we will send back to you.  You will now receive a document which confirms the details of the certificates that have been checked and the outcome of the checks. You should keep this as confirmation that the checks have been carried out. You will need to submit this document the the National Clearance Hub (NCH) should manual clearance be required. We will no longer be sending back photocopies of all of the certificates that you submitted - this will save us a lot of time and paper and will help keep costs down. Although Illegal Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) Catch Certificates are not controlled on TRACES, it is possible to transmit the outcome of this check via the CVED (where there is one). Port Health use Box 42 on the CVED(P) Part 2, to send a message to ALVS. Following the implementation of ALVS there will be no requirement to send any release information in respect of IUU check to the NCH (where there is a CVED). Where an IUU certificate is required,  Document code C673 must be declared in Box 44 (item level) of the SAD. You will no longer be required to send any release information in respect of IUU check to the National Clearance Hub (NCH). If your IUU checks were not complete at the time your CVED was issued, or you have an IUU catch certificate check and there is no CVED required, automatic release your consignment will not be possible.  Your consignment will need to be manually released at the NCH. IUU Catch certificate - No CVED required Declaring that a CVED is not required Products that require an IUU, will be classified under a heading where there is a mandatory requirement for a CVED on the customs entry. If a CVED is not required, you will need to waive this requirement.  Use of the waiver status code will prevent the import entry item being passed to ALVS.

• document code N853 
• document waiver status code XW
• reference details e.g. GBCVDNOTREQUIRED

Where there is no CVED, Port Health will not be able to relay the outcome of the IUU checks to Customs via ALVS.Customs will need to manually clear the IUU Catch Certificate checks. You will not need Port Health to authorise your manual clearance, you will be able to submit this directly to the NCH using the proforma available via the ALVS pages on the .GOV.UK website. You will need to include the document confirming the outcome of the checks as proof that the checks have been completed and are satisfactory. IUU Catch certificate - outcome of checks not on CVED Where the IUU checks have not been concluded at the time the CVED is completed an IUU Hold message will be entered. Following this, the release of the IUU will be a manual process at the NCH.  The document confirming the outcome of checks can be used as proof that the checks have been completed and are satisfactory. Find out more information about the:-

• Automatic Licence Validation System (ALVS) (opens the .GOV.UK website)
• Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing Regulations and the checks that are carried out on catch certificates please visit Import Process - IUU
• If you need any assistance with completion of the customs declaration you should contact CHIEF Operations chief.operations@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk for further advice