The Northern Ireland Retail Scheme sign-up service is now open for registration.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/retail-movement-scheme-how-the-scheme-will-work/retail-movement-scheme-how-the-scheme-will-work

For enquiries on registration, contact NIRetailMovementEnquiries@apha.gov.uk

All businesses should have at least one Food Business Operator number, some may have several. If your business does not have an FBO number, then you should apply for one here.

If you are yet to receive confirmation of your FBO number from your Local Authority, you can insert the relevant place holder below into the FBO field in the sign-up service. Whilst this will minimise any initial delay to your ability to sign up, the FBO number will be validated by the Competent Authority (APHA) after registration. Businesses should provide their FBO number to APHA at the earliest possible date after signing up to the scheme.

· NI traders: NI unvalidated field

· GB traders: GB unvalidated field

Please contact traders@defra.gov.uk with any other queries on the Windsor Framework.

Defra have now published the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) risk-categorisation for the imports of animals, animal products, plants and plant products for the remaining countries outside of the EU, which sets out the controls that will apply to these goods when they are exported to Great Britain from 30 April 2024.

From 30 April 2024 onwards, the controls for imports to GB from all third countries will shift away from the inherited EU model to the BTOM’s risk-based and targeted approach. This shift will represent a material change in how commodities are exported to GB from certain countries with several positive outcomes for GB importers, most prominently a reduction in cost and time to bring goods into GB.

The BTOM describes categories of high, medium and low risk, and this categorisation gives the details of how the new Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) regime will be applied.

For animals and animal products, the categorisation is derived from a scientific assessment of the biosecurity risk that each commodity poses, weighted against the disease and pest risk of the country of origin. For plants and plant products, an equivalent process is in place to categorise commodities according to biosecurity risk. The model is dynamic, with risk categorisation able to change in response to changes to disease risk. Defra will communicate with traders well in advance of any changes to commodity categorisation.

The risk categorisation for animals and animal products does not alter existing market access arrangements. Trading partners can continue to import the same range of products under the BTOM as they are able to now. Defra’s initial risk assessment has focused on the following countries – Argentina, Australia, Botswana, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Ecuador, Faroe Islands, India, Israel, Japan, Namibia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United States, Uruguay and Vietnam. It is these trading partners to which the BTOM risk categories will initially apply. Other countries that have market access for animal products will continue to trade under existing conditions until a risk assessment has been completed.

For non-EU animals and animal products, the risk categorisation is available here.

For non-EU plants and plant products the risk categorisation is available here.

To compliment webinars which ran in August, September and October, Defra will be running a further series of webinars and new in-depth demonstration sessions focusing on actions that businesses will need to complete to move goods under the Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme. This includes how to create a general certificate, generating a Common Health Entry Document, and signing up to relevant systems.

6 additional webinars have been scheduled on the end-to-end process for Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme, groupage, and mixed load consignments. These sessions will take place from 5 September 2023 to 31 October 2023, will be approx. 1 hour 30 minutes in length, and will include a presentation and Q&A section.

The sessions are intended to provide opportunities to understand the overall process for the Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme and will also be supplemented with deep dive sessions on using NIRMS to go into more detail.

Demonstration Sessions

A series of weekly sessions will run from 29 August 2023 to 31 October 2023. The sessions will be approximately 1 hour in length and will cover 4 topic areas, providing a step-by-step run through the various systems that your business will have to interact with to move your goods under the Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme. At each session, policy and area specialists will be available to answer any questions.

There will be 4 topic area sessions covering:

Registering for the Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme TRACES Registration

Document Creation – Creating General Certificates (GCs)

Document Creation – Creating GCs and Common Heath Entry Documents (CHEDs)

Following the webinars and demonstration sessions, a FAQs document and slide packs will be made available. FAQ documents will continue to be updated and will be issued over the upcoming months.

When will the sessions take place?

The sessions will take place via Microsoft Teams on the following dates and times:

Webinars:

05/09/2023 – 09:30 – 11:00

15/09/2023 – 09:30 – 11:00

26/09/2023 – 09:30 – 11:00

03/10/2023 – 09:30 – 11:00

17/10/2023 – 09:30 – 11:00

31/10/2023 – 09:30 – 11:00

Demonstration Sessions:

Registering to the Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme:

29/08/23 – 09:30 – 10:30

31/08/23 – 11:30 – 12:30

04/09/23 – 14:30 – 15:30

12/09/23 – 09:00 – 10:00

20/09/23 – 15:00 – 16:00

28/09/23 – 12:30 – 13:30

02/10/23 – 15:00 – 16:00

12/10/23 – 10:00 – 11:00

17/10/23 – 14:30 – 15:30

25/10/23 – 09:30 – 10:30

TRACES Registration:

18/09/23 – 09:30 – 10:30

21/09/23 – 14:00 – 15:00

25/09/23 – 15:30 – 16:30

29/09/23 – 11:00 – 12:00

02/10/23 – 11:30 – 12:30

05/10/23 – 12:00 – 13:00

10/10/23 – 15:30 – 16:30

18/10/23 – 10:30 – 11:30

24/10/23 – 14:00 – 15:00

30/10/23 – 15:30 – 16:30

Document Creation – Creating GCs (Sessions are approximately 45 minutes)

08/09/23 – 10:00 – 10:45

11/09/23 – 14:00 – 14:45

15/09/23 – 09:30 – 10:15

Document Creation – Creating GCs and CHEDs

19/09/23 – 09:30 – 10:30

27/09/23 – 14:00 – 15:00

29/09/23 – 15:00 – 16:00

02/10/23 – 09:00 – 10:00

04/10/23 – 11:30 – 12:30

06/10/23 – 15:00 – 16:00

11/10/23 – 10:00 – 11:00

20/10/23 – 15:00 – 16:00

26/10/23 – 11:00 – 12:00

31/10/23 – 09:00 – 10:00

How to join the Webinars and Demonstration Sessions

You can register and book a place for the webinars or demonstration sessions by referring to the Defra Windsor Framework events page on Eventbrite here and click on the links within the listings. The links provide more information on the topic areas covered.