Following the initial announcement when Members were advised that the Automatic Licence Verification System (ALVS) for Northern Ireland will be replaced by CERTEX, HMRC has advised that the new system will no longer be implemented on the 28th of June 2025.
Please see the HMRC announcement, below, for more information and actions to take if members moving goods to Northern Ireland from Great Britain or Rest of the World.
Delay to the implementation of CERTEX
On 3 June we informed you about CERTEX, a system that will verify licence data on declarations for goods movements. It will replace the Automatic Licence Verification System (ALVS) for Northern Ireland.
CERTEX will no longer be implemented on 28 June 2025. A new implementation date has not been set.
Action to take for traders
Traders may need to take action depending on whether they are moving goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland or from the Rest of the World to Northern Ireland.
They should continue to follow standard processes for controlled goods in Northern Ireland including reporting for inspections where required to do so.
Moving goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland
This delay does not affect the use of the new Common Health Entry Document (CHED) reference format on traders’ declarations from 28 June 2025. The reference format is letters followed by numbers and includes the full stop character. For example, ‘CHEDA.XI.2025.1234567’.
Declarations using the existing format (e.g. ‘GBCHD2025.1234567’) will not be rejected, however we encourage traders to use the new format in readiness for the implementation of CERTEX at a later date.
Traders will not receive CERTEX specific messages for these movements in CDS so they must continue to monitor the Goods Vehicle Movement Service (GVMS) at GVMS locations or the respective inventory system at inventory locations.
For detailed guidance, please visit GOV.UK.
Moving goods from Rest of World to Northern Ireland
This delay means traders must not use the new Common Health Entry Document (CHED) format on their declarations from 28 June 2025. They must continue to use the existing format found in Appendix 5a. For example, ‘GBCHD2025.1234567’.
If they have pre-lodged any declarations using the new format these must be changed before arrival on the Customs Declaration Service (CDS). Failure to use the correct CHED format will result in rejections or holds on your goods once the goods arrive and potentially delays in getting the goods released.
Traders should continue to monitor CDS for any ‘ALVS’ messages.
Next steps
We apologise for any inconvenience the delay to the implementation of CERTEX has caused and will provide further information in due course.
Processes for making a declaration or obtaining a licence remain unchanged.
Additional support
For support for goods in movement, contact the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (DAERA) on 0300 200 7852 or email daera.helpline@daera-ni.gov.uk.
For general support with freight movements, traders can contact the Trader Support Service team, or call the HMRC Customs and International Trade helpline on 0300 322 9434 (textphone 0300 200 3719).
For support with parcels movements, traders can contact their parcel express operator. Please note this change does not impact express operators moving consumer parcels under the UK Carrier Scheme.
The post Northern Ireland SPS Licence Verification CERTEX – Implementation Delay & Actions to Take appeared first on British International Freight Association.
