GUIDANCE ON ADDRESSING PORT DELAYS AND PROCESS ISSUES FOR PHAS
Essential controls are in place for products relevant to the foot and mouth risks from Germany to create a more challenging environment for PHAs, traders and their supply chains. The continued flexibility and willingness of PHAs to flex your operations has been welcomed.
However, a number of process issues have been identified which are causing delays at ports, including consignments being held for long periods and in some instances, ports becoming close to reaching capacity for holding loads.
Defra therefore wanted to offer some additional guidance on the common problems and solutions being raised through the IRF:
- Multiple CHEDs under the same MRN. Where a load or container consists of a mixed load or groupage there is an increased risk that the CDS holds will not be lifted if a part of the consignment requires an inspection. In these instances we would ask PHAs, where possible and practical to do so, to ensure the trader is aware of the reasons for the hold and make every effort to complete the inspection in good time to avoid unnecessarily delays. For example, if a vehicle has 3 CHEDs and these are recorded on their CDS entry then the customs hold will not lift until all 3 CHEDs have been cleared on IPAFFS.
- Removal of consignments for inspections. If it is necessary to off load a particular consignment and cancel the CHED, it is important that the trader be informed immediately and advised to amend the CDS entry to remove the relevant commodity codes. Failure to amend the CDS entry will prevent the Customs hold being lifted. In exceptional cases where the CDS entry cannot be amended, NCH can issue a manual release. To note this will apply whether the CHED is cancelled by yourself or the Trader. Please note: NCH will NOT release holds for any other reason
- Under a customs hold. Where it is clear that a consignment is under a customs hold, despite all SPS check being complete, we would ask that the trader is alerted to the possibility of a non-match between IPAFFS and CDS and encourage the appropriate actions. The common errors resulting in no-match include:
- CHED reference number being incorrectly entered into CDS.
- Commodity codes not aligning.
- CHEDs being cancelled on IPAFF but not update on CDS or final destination not being a recognised GB address.
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