Implementation of NCTS5 Final State rules and downtime: 

The transition from NCTS5 Transitional State to NCTS5 Final State Rules in Northern Ireland (NI) and Great Britain (GB) will take place on 21 January 2025. 

HMRC has noted that some providers of commercial software will be switching their software version from NCTS5 Transitional State to NCTS5 Final State before this date and that they should contact their clients to confirm when this will take place. 

Therefore, HMRC recommends that businesses check with their software providers about their planned timing to switch to NCTS5 Final State Rules before 21 January. 

Planned downtime relating to the switch from Transitional State to Final State Rules NCTS5: Northern Ireland and GB. 

Monday 20 January 2025 to Tuesday 21 January 2025: 

The XI service will be unavailable from: 

22:00 on 20 January to 00:15 on 21 January GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). 

The GB service will be unavailable from: 

 23:00 on 20 January to 00:15 on 21 January GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) 

Important technical information for movements: 

Departures.  

The transit movement must reach the ‘Accepted’ status before the start of the unavailability times given above. 

If the movement is still in the ‘Submitted’ state when the system goes down, the Customs Office will reject the movement when the service returns to service and the movement will not progress further. 

Using the Inland Border Facilities to Start Goods Movements 

HMRC require that while NCTS is down, users should not, where possible, move goods under the Normal procedure where the movement would necessitate attending Inland Border Facilities (IBFs) or ports to start the movement. 

Using Manual Fall-Back Procedure 

If a movement of goods is essential and the trader has been unable to submit the declaration prior to the start of system downtime, the existing manual fallback procedure will be available.  However, it is recommended not to travel to an Inland Border Facility (IBF) to start a transit movement until the system is available. 

The manual fallback process is in Section 6: Business Continuity Procedure of the Transit Manual Supplement, which is available here: Transit Manual Supplement. 

HMRC have advised that an update to the Manual Fall-Back procedure will follow on 17th January. 

 Arrivals 

Arrival movements should be unaffected by any NCTS5 downtime, and movements should be able to progress from all statuses. 

Support 

Urgent support will be available during this time.   

Contact details are as follows: 

• NCTS Helpdesk - ncts.helpdesk@hmrc.gov.uk or 0300 322 7095 
• NCTS Supervising Office - isbc.nctssupervisingoffice@hmrc.gov.uk or 0300 322 9452. 

HMRC hosted a NCTS5 webinar on 7th January 2025.  Slides from the webinar are available here.  HMRC have also issued a spreadsheet that compares NCTS4 with NCTS5 for reference.  The spreadsheet is available here: 

HMRC will issue communications and update the service availability page to confirm when each service has successfully gone live. 

All updates can be found on gov.uk. 

Note that the newsletter page can take up to 1 week to be updated. 

If you are interested in exploring this topic further, you might find it worthwhile to consider the training courses and live clinics offered by Strong & Herd LLP: