The Automatic Licence Verification (ALV) system, which hopes to streamline importing and save the industry £1 million a year, has gone live.

The ALV system applies to goods controlled by the Horticultural Marketing Inspectorate or Plant Health and Seeds Inspectorate directly imported into England and Wales from third countries outside the EU and indirect imports that pass through the EU en route to the UK.

Companies will not now be able to use the existing procedures for customs clearance for containers subject to HMI or PHSI control. They will no longer fax Conformity and Quarantine Release Certificates to HMRC’s National Clearance Hub for physical checks, as ALV provides an electronic link between the Fera/Rural Payments Agency (RPA) PEACH system and the HMRC CHIEF system.

Consignment release decisions from HMI and PHSI Inspectors are transmitted electronically and in real time, directly into CHIEF, removing the need for agents or importers to send Quarantine Release Certificates or Conformity Certificates to the HMRC National Clearance Hub at Salford.

This update directly into CHIEF results in the customs clearance times of containers which are subject to HMI or PHSI control being reduced from the current two hours down to 10-15 minutes, once the HMI or PHSI decision has been made.

Advance notifications submitted to DEFRA and the RPA on the PEACH system will be received and matched to an import declaration submitted to HMRC on its CHIEF system. If there is an exact match, then a DEFRA and/or RPA release decision will be passed electronically to HMRC.

The key to quicker customs clearance under ALV is to ensure that the Declaration Unique Consignment Reference(DUCR), TARIC code and weight, entered on the import declaration to HMRC exactly match the DUCR, Commodity/Variety and weight entered onto a PEACH application, the Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC) advises.

ALV will bring annual savings of around £1 million a year for the industry and is the result of the FPC’s push for simplified procedures as part of a long-term strategy to develop PEACH, eDomero and CHIEF.

For those companies which have not already been involved in the long-running pilot and made the switch to ALV, there is information and guidance available online.

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