Customs Procedure Codes: What DE 1/10 and DE 1/11 Actually Do

The procedure code is the field that decides whether a movement claims a relief or pays duty twice, and it is the one most often left to whoever is filling in the declaration. It is not hard — four digits answering two questions, plus a second field for the conditions — but the official material is a set of reference tables that say outright they are not guidance, which is why two of the top ten results for this term are videos of someone reading them aloud. This guide covers what each field does, where the reliefs are claimed, and why three of the four common mistakes never produce an error message.

What is a customs procedure code?

A customs procedure code tells customs what is being done with the goods — not what they are, and not who is moving them. It is the field that distinguishes a permanent import from a temporary one, a re-import after repair from a fresh purchase, and goods entering a warehouse from goods released for sale. The commodity code says what the goods are; the procedure code says what is happening to them, and the two together decide what is payable.

It is also the field that claims a relief. Outward processing, returned goods relief and inward processing are not applied for on the day the goods arrive — they are declared, through a procedure code, and a movement declared under the wrong one has not claimed anything.

Why does everyone find them hard?

Because the official material is a reference, not an explanation. The gov.uk appendices are index pages of codes that state plainly they do not constitute full guidance on completing a declaration, and they assume you already know which procedure you are in. The structure is simple once seen; finding it stated anywhere is the difficulty.

The second reason is historical. Older guidance and a good deal of forwarder shorthand still describes a single seven-digit code. Under the Customs Declaration Service it is not one field any more — it is two, and they do different jobs.

What is in Data Element 1/10?

The procedure code itself: four digits, made of two pairs, and only one may be declared per goods item.

Reading it as two questions rather than one number is the whole trick. A code ending in 00 means there was no previous procedure — the goods arrive from outside and this is the first thing that happens to them. A non-zero second pair means the goods are moving between procedures, which is what a re-import after repair is.

What is in Data Element 1/11?

The additional procedure code: three characters, and unlike DE 1/10 more than one may be declared. Its job is to tailor a single four-digit procedure to the particular circumstances, which is why it exists at all.

Because only one procedure code is allowed per goods item, every variation — a relief, an exemption, a specific authorisation, a particular category of goods — has to be expressed somewhere else. That somewhere is DE 1/11. A declaration can carry one procedure code and several additional codes, each adding a condition to it.

Which additional codes may be used with which procedure is not free choice: HMRC publishes a correlation matrix between DE 1/10 and DE 1/11, and a pairing outside it is rejected.

How do the two fields work together?

One says what procedure, the others say under what conditions. Reading a declaration in that order makes it legible.

The consequence worth holding on to: if the circumstances of your movement are unusual, the unusual part is almost certainly expressed in DE 1/11 rather than in the procedure code, and asking "which procedure code" when you mean "which relief" is how people end up in the wrong appendix.

Where do the reliefs live?

In the procedure code, and this is the practical reason a customer should care about a field their broker completes. Each of the reliefs that stop you paying duty twice is claimed by declaring the movement to the right procedure.

Our guide to sending goods abroad for repair covers which relief fits which movement; this is the field through which each of them is actually claimed.

What does a previous procedure code actually track?

A chain, and whether it was closed. Customs procedures are not isolated events: goods can enter a warehouse, leave it for processing, come back and then be released for sale, and each of those steps is a declaration that has to say what the goods were under before it.

That is what the second pair of digits is for. It lets customs follow a consignment from one procedure to the next and see that the earlier one was discharged — the same discharge logic that governs a transit movement and its guarantee. A declaration that claims no previous procedure when there was one leaves the earlier procedure open, and an open procedure is a liability sitting on somebody's account waiting to be asked about.

The practical consequence is that the procedure code on a later declaration can be wrong because of what was declared on an earlier one. If goods were put into a procedure months ago by somebody else, whoever declares the next step inherits that history whether they know it or not.

Do procedure codes apply to exports as well as imports?

Yes, and the export side is where the money is usually lost. An import declared under the wrong procedure announces itself: the duty is wrong, or the declaration is rejected, and somebody notices that week.

An export declared under the wrong procedure does nothing at all at the time. The goods leave, the paperwork clears, everybody is satisfied — and the consequence arrives weeks or months later when the same goods come back and there is no record that they were ever temporarily exported. The relief that would have charged duty on a repair bill instead charges it on the whole machine.

That asymmetry is worth stating plainly because it inverts where attention usually goes. Import declarations get checked because they cost money immediately; export declarations get waved through because they do not. The expensive procedure-code error is almost always on the way out.

What goes wrong with procedure codes?

Four things, and the first is by far the most expensive because it is only discovered later.

Notice that only one of the four produces an error message. The other three go through cleanly and cost money later, which is why procedure codes are checked before a movement rather than after it.

Who chooses the code?

The declarant, which in practice means you or your customs broker — and the liability follows the declaration, not the advice. A broker will ask what you are doing with the goods and choose accordingly, which is why the answer they are given matters more than the code they pick.

The question to answer precisely is not "what are the goods" but "what is happening to them, and what happened to them before". A machine going out for repair, a demonstration unit going to a trade show, stock being returned to a supplier and a replacement being sent under warranty are four different procedures, and from the outside they can look like one lorry with a crate on it.

What does a carrier need to know?

Whether the movement is under a procedure at all, and whether a document has to travel physically with the goods. Those are the two facts that change what happens on the road rather than in the paperwork.

A movement under customs transit carries a transit accompanying document that has to be presented; a Carnet has to be stamped at each crossing; an ordinary export under a temporary procedure may need nothing in the cab at all. T&C Logistics moves the consignment and the documents with it — the procedure code is declared by you or your broker, who holds the authorisation and the liability for it.

How does this fit the rest of a declaration?

It is one of the five answers a customs declaration gives, and the only one about the movement rather than the goods, the trader or the money.

Get the first two right and the wrong procedure code still costs you the relief. They are independent fields answering independent questions, and a declaration is only as good as the weakest of them.

How do you book a movement that is under a procedure?

Tell us at booking that it is, and tell us what has to travel with it. We do not complete your declaration — that is yours or your broker's, and the liability sits there — but a vehicle carrying goods under a customs procedure is a different job from one carrying a sale, and the difference is in what the driver has to present and where.

Send the collection and delivery postcodes, what the goods are, and whether a transit document or Carnet is travelling. Call 07963 400173 or send the details by WhatsApp. Pricing starts from £50 (ex VAT); the final price depends on distance, vehicle, urgency and time, and is quoted in full upfront before you book.