Windsor Framework: What a GB Sender Needs for Northern Ireland

If you sell to Northern Ireland customers, the Windsor Framework decides whether your consignment travels on a short commercial dataset or a full customs declaration — and whether EU duty can be charged on a movement that never leaves the UK. The difference turns on one authorisation and one test, both of which have to be settled before the vehicle is loaded.

What is the Windsor Framework, and what changed for a GB business sending goods to Northern Ireland?

The Windsor Framework replaced the paperwork a Great Britain business used to face on every consignment to a Northern Ireland customer with a simplified route for goods staying in the UK. HMRC confirmed the new arrangements were implemented in May 2025.

In practice three mechanisms do the work. Internal Market Movement Information is a reduced dataset used in place of a full customs declaration. A Trader Goods Profile pre-populates part of that dataset. Entry in Declarant's Records lets the information be submitted after the goods have moved rather than before.

All three depend on one condition: either the sending or the receiving business must hold UK Internal Market Scheme authorisation, and the goods must meet the "not at risk" test. Without that authorisation a business-to-business movement falls back to full customs processes and the EU rate of duty may apply — which is where most unexpected bills come from.

Who needs UKIMS authorisation, and what does "not at risk" actually mean?

Goods are "not at risk" when they are brought into Northern Ireland for sale, or final use, by end consumers in Northern Ireland or Great Britain. If the goods are heading onward into the EU, they are at risk and the simplified route is closed to them.

Either party can hold the authorisation. That matters commercially: a GB supplier without UKIMS can still move goods under the simplified processes if the Northern Ireland customer is authorised, and vice versa. One of the two has to have it, and it must be in place before the goods move, not applied for afterwards.

Two further conditions sit behind the headline. The goods must be in free circulation in Great Britain and moving into free circulation in Northern Ireland, and they must be Standard or Category 2 goods. An EORI number is needed either way — it is the identifier the whole movement hangs on.

Authorisation is applied for through HMRC and is not instant, which is the practical trap. A business that discovers at the loading bay that neither party is authorised cannot fix the position that day; the consignment either waits or travels under full customs processes. If you sell into Northern Ireland at all regularly, treating UKIMS as infrastructure rather than per-order paperwork is the cheaper position. Where the receiving business holds it, ask for the authorisation number and keep it on the customer record alongside their customs representation arrangements, so the question is answered before an order is picked rather than after.

What is Internal Market Movement Information, and how does it differ from a full declaration?

It is a simplified dataset requiring less information than a full customs declaration. Where a full declaration wants the complete commodity-code and valuation picture, the simplified dataset accepts a plain-English goods description alongside standard commercial information.

If you already understand a customs declaration, think of the simplified dataset as the same movement described in commercial rather than tariff language. The commodity code still exists in the background; it is the Trader Goods Profile that stops you supplying one per movement.

When does a Trader Goods Profile help, and when can you not use one?

A Trader Goods Profile holds your goods data so the simplified dataset pre-populates, leaving you to provide a product reference or a simple description plus the commercial detail. For a business sending the same catalogue to Northern Ireland week after week, that removes most of the per-movement effort.

There is one restriction that catches people out, and it is stated plainly in HMRC's guidance: you cannot use the Trader Goods Profile for goods moved by most carriers. Where a courier or express operator completes the Internal Market Movement Information on your behalf, the profile does not feed into it — you give the carrier a plain-English goods description and the standard commercial information instead.

So the profile is worth building if you submit your own information, and worth nothing if your carrier submits it. Deciding which model you are on is the first question to settle, because it changes what you have to maintain.

Which movements still need full customs processes?

The second row is the expensive one. A business-to-business parcel that does not move under UKIMS follows exactly the same processes as a freight movement — there is no lighter treatment because the box is small. Businesses that have been sending small B2B consignments on consumer-style labels are the ones most likely to be surprised.

What changes for agri-food under the Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme?

Certain agri-food goods can be declared as Standard goods under the Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme, which removes the requirement for additional information and licences that would otherwise attach to them.

That is a meaningful simplification for anyone sending chilled or ambient food lines to Northern Ireland retail. Without the scheme, the same consignment can attract certification and licensing obligations on top of the customs position, and those obligations are what usually stop a food load rather than the duty.

The scheme sits alongside, not instead of, the UKIMS position. Goods declared as Standard goods under it still have to qualify as not at risk and still travel on Internal Market Movement Information where that route is being used. If your consignment is temperature-controlled as well, the cold-chain obligations are separate again and belong to you as the sender — see cold chain validation for what "maintained" has to mean in evidence terms.

Do parcels sent to Northern Ireland need a customs declaration?

A parcel going to a consumer does not need a customs declaration. A parcel going to a business does, unless it moves under UKIMS, in which case the simplified dataset applies.

That single distinction decides the paperwork, and it turns on who receives the goods rather than on what is in the box or how it was sent. A 2 kg box of samples to a laboratory is a business-to-business movement; the same box to someone's home address is not.

Signing up to the free Trader Support Service is one route to getting the declarations done. Using a courier or express operator that makes the arrangements as part of its service is another, and for a business sending occasional consignments it is usually the cheaper of the two in time terms. There is also the register of customs agents and express operators if you want to appoint someone directly.

What does a GB sender have to get right before the van loads?

Five things, in order, and skipping any one of them turns a routine delivery into a held load.

1. Step 1 — get an EORI number if you do not have one. Nothing else is possible without it.
2. Step 2 — establish whether you or your Northern Ireland customer holds UKIMS authorisation, and confirm it in writing. "We think they have it" is not a position to load a vehicle on.
3. Step 3 — satisfy yourself the goods are not at risk: for sale or final use by end consumers in Northern Ireland or Great Britain, in free circulation both sides, Standard or Category 2.
4. Step 4 — decide who submits the Internal Market Movement Information: you, the Trader Support Service, a customs agent, or the carrier.
5. Step 5 — give whoever submits it a plain-English goods description and the standard commercial information, before collection rather than after.

The same five apply to a single pallet and to a full load. The volume changes the cost of getting it wrong, not the process.

How does T&C Logistics handle a Northern Ireland consignment?

We move the goods. We are not your customs agent and we do not hold a customs-broker authorisation — the declaration itself runs through the Trader Support Service, through a customs agent you appoint, or through an express operator that offers it as part of the service.

What we need from you before collection is the UKIMS position, a plain-English description of what is in the consignment, and the commercial paperwork. What we provide is the vehicle, the driver and the documented handover at both ends. Our Northern Ireland freight page sets out the routes we run, and UK–Ireland pallets covers the groupage option for part loads.

If the crossing is by ferry you will also meet the Goods Movement Reference requirement, which is a separate system from the customs position — see GVMS and the GMR explained. If you are not sure which of the two you are missing, tell us the route and the receiving business and we will say which pieces are outstanding before anything is loaded.