DEFRA GOOD PRACTICE ON CHEDS TO REDUCE DELAYS
Defra have recently issued the following guidance on Common Health Entry Documents (CHEDs) which members may find useful.
What is a CHED?
A Common health entry document (CHED):
• Is a notification of imports of food, feed, live animals, and some plants and plant products to authorities in Great Britain (GB)
• Is submitted in advance of goods arriving in GB
• supports biosecurity (through checks at the border for some goods) and the traceability of foodstuffs
CHED reference numbers are also provided in customs import declarations. Underlying systems provide the ability for CDS to check the outcome of SPS checks at the border before releasing goods from a customs hold.
It’s important to follow good CHED practice
Errors in manual input (POAO) and bulk upload (Plants and plant products) can cause delays with processing.
Checking the CHED carefully before submission will help to:
✔️ Limit contact with GB authorities – goods only called into the Border Control Post for checks when required for biosecurity, rather than errors in the CHED.
✔️ Reduce error messages appearing in IPAFFS & CDS.
Good practice to reduce processing delays
1. When providing a delivery address/place of destination for an address in Great Britain, select:
‘United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’
+ country within GB from the drop-down country list.
Important: The incorrect country provided for a GB address may result in unnecessary contact with the authorities. Please double check the correct country has been provided on all addresses before submitting the CHED.
2. Keep the CHED up to date:
• Include the Goods Movement Reference (for GVMS enabled carriers) and Vehicle Registration Number where known.
• Update the estimated arrival time if travel times change and where GVMS is not used.
To update the CHED, first check the CHED status in the dashboard.
• If CHED status = Draft or New, you can change it yourself by clicking ‘Amend’
• If CHED status = In Progress, request PHA/APHA to set the CHED status to Amend so that you can change it.
3. If you are using bilingual keyboards (ie Polish/English) or copying and pasting information into the CHED from another document such as the transport documents, replace original language characters with the UK English equivalent characters:
L instead of Ł o instead of ó z instead of ź
4. For bulk upload of commodities check carefully before CHED submission:
• Commodity codes
• Weights or quantities
Check this information matches the customs declaration in CDS. Also check CHED reference is provided in the correct format in the customs declaration – you can copy and paste it from IPAFFS after you’ve submitted the CHED.
How to fix errors in your CHED after submission
Always check the CHED carefully before you submit it. However we understand that businesses and agents are often working at speed and errors happen.
If you identify an error after you’ve submitted the CHED, first check the CHED status in the dashboard.
• If CHED status = Draft or New, you can change it yourself by clicking ‘Amend’
• If CHED status = In Progress, request PHA/APHA to set the CHED status to Amend so that you can change it.
• If the CHED status is VALID but you are still seeing error messages, identify the mistake and contact the Port Health Authority (products of animal origin) or APHA (plants and plant products) to amend or replace the CHED with a corrected version.
• If you have created a completely new CHED to replace one you’ve previously submitted, remember to also replace the CHED reference number in the customs declaration.
Complex CHEDs/customs declarations
• If you have many lines of commodities in one CHED or many CHEDs in one custom declaration, check both carefully before you submit.
• If you are bulk uploading commodities into a CHED-PP for plants and plant products imports on IPAFFS, check that the data is correct in the CSV (Excel) file before you upload it to IPAFFS.
• During very busy periods, you may experience a short delay in the processing of Defra Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) CHED notifications. If you do experience a delay, please wait one hour after the status of your CHED notification shows as VALD in IPAFFS – it should resolve during this timeframe.
Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) in CHEDs
• Up to 76% of traders are using generic times like 00:00, 06:00, or “on the hour” for estimated arrival times (ETAs) in their CHEDs, even if the actual estimated time is, for example, 06:15.
• We understand this is often because businesses and agents are submitting multiple CHEDS at speed. But using these generic estimated arrival times may actually cause a delay in processing these CHEDs and also means that PHAs and APHA may not have an accurate, timely view of goods coming through the point of entry, making it challenging to anticipate inspection needs.
• Traders are therefore strongly encouraged to provide more specific ETAs in CHEDs, such as 06:15 or 06:20 in order to avoid potential delays in processing the CHED.
