The introduction of NCTS5 Final State rules - 21 January 2025
The transition from NCTS5 Transitional State to NCTS5 Final State, in Northern Ireland (NI) and Great Britain (GB), will take place on 21 January 2025.
Sequoia and Final State Rules
Sequoia will automatically switch from Transitional State to Final State rules at midnight between 20th and 21st January.
However, as the HMRC system is unavailable between 22:00 on 20th and 00:15 on 21st January, you should not submit declarations or arrivals between these times.
HMRC will issue communications and update the service availability page to confirm when each service has successfully gone live. You are advised to check before resuming transit operations.
Once final state rules are implemented, Sequoia will 'map' data to individual house consignments within a transit declaration.
Monday 20 January 2025 to Tuesday 21 January 2025:
- The HMRC XI (Northern Ireland) service will be unavailable from 22:00 on 20 January to 00:15 on 21 January GMT (Greenwich Mean Time).
- The HMRC GB service will be unavailable from 23:00 on 20 January to 00:15 on 21 January GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)
Important:
For Departures, the movement must reach at least ‘Accepted’ status before the above start times.
If the movement is still in the ‘Submitted’ status when the service becomes unavailable, the customs office will need to reject the movement once the system becomes available as it will not progress any further.
While NCTS is down, you should refrain, where possible, from moving goods under the Normal procedure which requires attending Inland Border Facilities (IBFs) or ports to start movements.
If you must move goods and have been unable to submit the declarations prior to the start of system downtime, you will be able to use the existing manual fallback procedure, although we recommend you do not travel to an Inland Border Facility (IBF) to start a transit movement until the system is available. You can find the manual fallback process in the Transit Manual Supplement.
For Arrivals, movements are unaffected and should be able to progress from all statuses.
If you require urgent support during this time, please contact: -
- NCTS Helpdesk - ncts.helpdesk@hmrc.gov.uk or 0300 322 7095
- NCTS Supervising Office - isbc.nctssupervisingoffice@hmrc.gov.uk or 0300 322 9452.
HMRC will issue communications and update the service availability page to confirm when each service has successfully gone live.
On behalf of the JCCC Secretariat
Borders & Trade | Customs Policy & Strategy (CP&S)
