Plants & Plant Products:

Low-risk P&PP goods and medium-risk B P&PP goods must not be notified in IPAFFS.

Complete guidance is available on gov.uk on both the Common User Charge and the BTOM Risk Categorisations pages.

Traders will need to note that:

• High and medium-risk A goods will require a phytosanitary certificate and pre-notification (CHED PP) to be made on IPAFFS. 
• Medium-risk B goods will require a phytosanitary certificate but will not need to be pre-notified. 
• Low-risk goods do not require a phytosanitary certificate or pre-notification (CHED PP) to be made on IPAFFS. 
• If you do submit a notification on IPAFFS for medium-risk B and low-risk plants and plant products, you will be charged the Common User Charge of £29 for each commodity line, up to the limit of 5 commodity lines per CHED.

A temporary easement is in place for some fruit and vegetables from the European Union member states, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland. These are medium risk but are currently being treated as low risk. Therefore, they do not require notification on IPAFFS.

It is essential that traders both understand and accurately apply the published risk categories to their goods for import.

The BTOM risk categorisations page provides an overview of the risk categorisation for the different commodity types. A searchable list can be accessed with the following link

BTOM-risk-categories-EU-countries-list-by-commodity-code-08-08-2024.xlsx (live.com)

Further guidance can be found here:

Check import risk categories, inspection rates and related rules for animals and animal products imported from the EU to Great Britain - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Billing details, including advice for agents: The billing details in IPAFFS must be those of the organisation whose IPAFFS account was used to create the notification:

Agents are prompted to check that the billing details provided in the IPAFFS notification are those of the organisation whose IPAFFS account was used to create the notification.   If inaccurate data, such as the agents’ data, is added to this field, the agent will be billed for the Common User Charge.

Complete guidance is available on gov.uk on the Common User Charge page.

Traders are requested to note:

• If you raise your own import notifications on IPAFFS, you are responsible for paying the common user charge. You must provide your own billing details in the notification.
• If you are an agent raising POAO or HRFNAO products and raise import notifications on IPAFFS for more than one importer/customer, you must pay the common user charge for all these importers and use your billing details for the notifications.
  
  If you use an importer’s/customer’s billing details, they could be invoiced for all the notifications being raised, including those for other importers/customers.

• If you are an agent raising P&PP products, you will operate under your customer's Delegation of Authority (DoA) and raise notifications using their IPAFFS account.
  
  In this instance, the customer’s billing details should be provided, as the customer will be responsible for the charge. This is the billing details for the organisation whose IPAFFS account is being used to create the import notification.
  
  If an agent working under DoA provides their own billing details, they could be charged for all notifications raised on the customer’s IPAFFS account, including notifications raised by other agents operating under DoA for that customer.

What to do if incorrect billing details have been entered on the notification:

If incorrect billing details have been added to a notification, this can be amended in IPAFFS by either updating the billing details on an existing live notification (i.e., one that has not already entered the country) or updating the details on the next notification. Note that there must be no other existing notifications at that point.

This will update the customer record for future notifications. If you want an existing invoice sent to the updated billing details, SSCL should be contacted directly.

Who to contact with invoice queries:

SSCL are your first point of contact for any invoice-related queries, issues, or payments. 

Contact can be made by phone (01633 631800) or email (SSCL.invoicing@gov.sscl.com).

Please include the following information in every communication:

• The organisation's name
• Customer number
• Invoice number for the relevant invoice you wish to discuss.

Only the organisation named on the invoice can discuss or query an invoice or seek support from SSCL. However, any organisation can pay the invoice if it has the organisation's name, customer number, and invoice number.

SSCL can send invoice data in Excel spreadsheet format upon request. 

A link to a recording of the original webinar from 13^th August can be found here:

DEFRA Common User Charge Invoicing Webinar 13 August 2024 (youtube.com)