UK NCTS Downtime

PRO BLOG - There is planned downtime for UK NCTS. We have details

the New Computerised Transit System, Phase 6 (NCTS6) will be delivered in two phases. NCTS6 Phase 1 is scheduled for deployment on Monday, 1 September 2025.

Planned downtime - 1 September 2025

To support the deployment of NCTS6 Phase 1, there will be a short period of downtime affecting both the Great Britain (GB) and Northern Ireland (XI) NCTS services:

• Both Great Britain (GB) and Northern Ireland (XI) services will be unavailable from 21:00 BST on 1 September 2025. Both services are expected to be fully restored by 23:00 BST.

• Messages relating to submitted declarations during this time will be queued and issued once the services have been restored.

Important information during downtime

Please ensure you follow the usual procedures for exports and imports, such as getting a Goods Movement Reference if moving via a GVMS location.

For departures, whilst NCTS is unavailable, we recommend avoiding movements under the normal procedure, which requires attendance at Inland Border Facilities (IBFs) or ports.

If you must move goods and cannot submit declarations before the downtime begins, you may use the manual fallback procedure. However, we advise against travelling to an IBF to start a transit movement until the system is back online.

For arrivals into GB or XI you should continue your movements as usual. Some transit processes such as office of destination may need to be completed when NCTS is available.

You can find the manual fallback processes in the Transit Manual Supplement.

Need Help?

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.