TSS Bulletin 206th edition

Published: 6 November 2025|

Contents

Import Control System 2 (ICS2): Notification of Arrival of Goods and Presentation of Goods

ICS2 becomes mandatory from 31 December 2025 for the lodging of pre-arrival Entry Summary Declarations (ENS) for movements into Northern Ireland. It also introduces the requirement for the submission of two new notifications:

  • Notification of Arrival of Goods
  • Presentation of Goods

What is Notification of Arrival of Goods in ICS2?

Notification of Arrival of Goods is a formal message submitted to the customs office of first entry to confirm that the means of transport carrying goods has physically arrived at its destination. It is a mandatory step in the ICS2 process and must be submitted after the Entry Summary Declaration (ENS) and before the presentation of goods notification.

What is Presentation of Goods in ICS2?

Presentation of Goods is a formal message confirming that goods have arrived and are available for inspection. It must be submitted after the Notification of Arrival of Goods to finalise the movement in ICS2.

Can these notifications be automated for certain movements?

Yes – for RoRo movements, using the Goods Vehicle Movement Service (GVMS).

For RoRo movements, HMRC’s Trader Integration Micro Service (TIMS) automates the Notification of Arrival of Goods and Presentation of Goods via GVMS to satisfy the requirements for ICS2.

  • TSS will create a Goods Movement Reference (GMR) and include all Movement Reference Numbers (MRNs) related to your load directly to GVMS, if you’re using TSS GMR Automation.
  • If you’re creating GMRs using the GVMS Portal, ensure all MRNs related to your load are included in your GMR.

Details on how you can use the TSS GMR Automation or how to create a GMR in GVMS can be found in the Creating a Goods Movement Reference guide on NICTA.

For maritime movements, there is no automation available, and it is the responsibility of the ENS submitter to manually submit the Notification of Arrival of Goods and Presentation of Goods to ICS2.

More information on how to complete these submissions is available in Make an entry summary declaration using the ICS2 on GOV.UK.

Ensuring ICS2 Readiness: Goods Descriptions and Commodity Codes

As communicated in TSS Bulletins, webinars and podcasts, the Import Control System Northern Ireland (ICS-NI), which receives Entry Summary Declarations (ENS) via the TSS Portal, will be replaced by Import Control System 2 (ICS2).

Businesses are required to transition to using ‘RoRo Accompanied [ICS2]’ and ‘RoRo Unaccompanied [ICS2]’ for Entry Summary Declaration (ENS) submissions through the TSS Portal by no later than 31 December 2025.

To ensure you have sufficient quality data, ICS2 has a ‘stop-words’ list embedded in the declaration screening, as part of the safety and security risk analysis.

In accordance with the ICS2 requirements, the goods description provided in the Entry Summary Declaration (ENS) must be ‘a plain language description that is precise enough to be able to identify the goods’.

General terms (such as ‘consolidated’, ‘general cargo’, ‘parts’, or ‘freight of all kinds’) or not sufficiently precise descriptions can’t be accepted. Using these terms in Entry Summary Declarations (ENS) may result in automatic filing rejections under ICS2. It’s important that the data provided in Entry Summary Declarations complies with ICS2 requirements.

TSS users are encouraged to revisit this guidance to support their preparations and ensure that the data provided by shippers and other parties complies with EU expectations.

What to do next?

  1. Access the updated list of stop words to ensure ongoing compliance with ICS2 requirements.
  2. Review the requirements to align internal and client-facing processes.
  3. Clearly communicate data requirements with your clients to raise awareness and improve data input quality.

How to find a Commodity Code: 6 digits for ICS2

For each of the goods, ICS2 requires a 6-digit HS code to be entered in the Entry Summary Declaration (ENS).

You can find your commodity code using the Northern Ireland Online Tariff.

There are 21 different sections, each containing different chapters, headings and subheadings. You need to select the appropriate information to ensure that your commodity codes are correct. This means knowing about the products that you are transporting.

For example, you may be moving some orange marmalade that has a 40% sugar content by weight.

  • Go to ‘Section IV: Prepared foodstuffs: beverages, spirits and vinegar; tobacco and manufactured tobacco substitutes’.
  • Go to the section called ‘Preparations of vegetables, fruit, nuts or other parts of plants’. This gives you the code 20.
  • Click on ‘Jams, fruit jellies, marmalades, fruit or nut puree and fruit or nut pastes, obtained by cooking, whether or not containing added sugar or other sweetening matter’. This gives you the code 07.
  • Then, as the marmalade has not gone through a homogenised preparation, click ‘other’. This gives you the code 91.

In this case the data to be submitted to ICS2 would be:

  • Goods Description – Orange Marmalade
  • 6-digit commodity code – 200791

Read further information

TSS Tip: keep your TSS Company Profile up to date

To keep your Company Profile up to date, you should regularly check that the information entered is correct and only authorised users have access to it.

Check and update your current list of users

It is important to check the list of current users of your TSS account and whether their contact details, including their email address, are accurate. Where possible, use business email addresses instead of personal email addresses. This ensures that the right people in your business receive communications from TSS.

If a user has left your business, you would need to request to have them removed from your TSS account. Simply deactivating them only restricts their access to the TSS Portal but does not prevent them from receiving communications from TSS.

Deactivating a user is usually a temporary measure, for example if the user is on parental leave or an extended absence. You shouldn’t use this option to permanently remove a user from your account.

To remove a user from your Company Profile, the Primary Account holder should raise a case by:

  • Logging into the TSS Portal, or
  • Calling the TSS Contact Centre on 0800 060 8888

Step-by-step guidance on how to raise a case in the TSS Portal can be found in the How to use the TSS Portal guide on NICTA.

Did you know TSS can auto-populate data onto your goods movements?

The information from your Company Profile can be used to populate information on your goods movement. Keeping the information on your Company Profile up to date will ensure your goods movement submissions are completed in an accurate and timely manner.

For example, check whether any authorisations you hold, such as a UK Internal Market Scheme (UKIMS) or Northern Ireland retail Movement Scheme (NIRMS), are added to your Company Profile, as these details will be auto populated by TSS onto your goods movements. Details on how to add authorisations to your Company Profile can be found in the How to use the TSS Portal guide on NICTA.

In addition, you may want to benefit from the ‘Do you want the company name to be private?’ field, which is used to determine whether the TSS can auto-populate certain information onto a goods movement, such as your company name and address. Selecting ‘No’ will allow the TSS to populate your company details, reducing manual data entry and speeding up the goods movement process.

This is particularly beneficial to hauliers or agents/intermediaries submitting goods movements on behalf of a trader.

Internal Market Movements

It is important to choose the best goods movement type in the TSS Portal to suit your business requirements.

The simplified processes for Internal Market Movements were introduced in the Windsor Framework and took effect from 1 May 2025.

These arrangements allow you to move goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland without having to complete full international customs declarations. The simplifications can be used for moving standard or Category 2 goods when one of the parties has a UKIMS authorisation and the goods meet the criteria to be moved ‘not at risk’ of entering the EU.

Only ordinary commercial information needs to be submitted using the Internal Market Movement Information (IMMI) form in the TSS Portal. This can be done before the goods are moved (pre-movement) or once the goods have arrived (post-movement).

You can set up a Trader Goods Profile (TGP) to facilitate quicker completion of the IMMI when shipping the same goods again.

The Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme (NIRMS) and the Northern Ireland Plant Health Label (NIPHL) scheme can be used alongside the simplified processes for Internal Market Movements.

Further guidance is available in the Simplified processes for Internal Market Movements – Introduction Guide and our Video: Using TSS to submit your Internal Market Movement Information on NICTA.

Information will be provided in upcoming bulletins about the other goods movement options available in the TSS Portal.

Action required: expanded business sector options for the Customs Duty Waiver Scheme

Changes are coming to the Customs Duty Waiver Scheme (CDWS) that require your attention and action.

What’s changing?

  • Current process: CDWS users are required to select their business sector, referred to as an ‘undertaking’, from three broad categories – Fisheries, Agriculture, or Other.
  • New requirement: Starting 15 December 2025, you must log in to HMRC online services and update your business sector by choosing from a newly expanded list of sector classifications.
  • Deadline: By 1 January 2026, all CDWS users must have updated their business sector using the expanded list of sector classifications to continue making claims.

If you do not update your sector information by the deadline, you will not be able to claim further waivers until you do so.

What stays the same?

The process for claiming a waiver on your import declaration remains unchanged. Once your sector information is updated, no further action is needed for waiver claims.

Next steps

Log in to HMRC online services from 15 December 2025 and update your sector classification before 1 January 2026.

Additional information and support

By email: Contact the HMRC NI stakeholder engagement team on [email protected]

On NICTA: How to claim a customs duty waiver guide

On GOV.UK:

Upcoming changes to the TSS Portal

There are some upcoming changes to the TSS Portal currently scheduled to take place on 23 November 2025.

New field ‘EU EORI for ICS2 Declarant’ within the TSS Company Profile

If you are a haulier or carrier that submits Entry Summary Declarations (ENS) and do not have an XI EORI but do have an EU EORI, you will be able to add your EU EORI to your TSS Company Profile, allowing you to submit Entry Summary Declarations to ICS2 via the TSS Portal.

This new field will be available for all hauliers/carriers registering with the TSS for the first time, as well as for existing hauliers/carriers via the TSS Company Profile.

If you currently hold an XI EORI in your TSS Company Profile, you do not need to take any action and can continue submitting your Entry Summary Declarations to ICS2.

The use of invalid characters in the TSS Portal

New functionality will be introduced to check for invalid characters on a number of fields within TSS forms that are submitted to ICS2.

This will ensure where invalid characters or a combination of invalid characters have been used (this commonly occurs where information is being copied from another source, for example, a PDF file), the TSS Portal will flag these before submission takes place, allowing the user to correct them before saving and submitting the declaration.

On the European Commission website there is a list of unacceptable characters in accordance with ICS2.

Enhancement to the ‘Copy Consignment’ function

The ‘Copy Consignment’ function in the TSS Portal allows you to copy over a previously used ENS consignment to a new consignment to facilitate quicker data input.

This is particularly useful to hauliers and traders who move the same type of goods on a regular basis.

This function will be updated to allow buyer/seller fields and container indicator (registered shipping container) details to copy over to a new consignment to eliminate manual data entry on these fields and facilitate quicker submission.

Step-by-step instructions on how to use the ‘Copy Consignment’ function can be found in the ENS Step-by-step guide: Standard Process and Consignment First Process on NICTA.

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