DEFRA has issued a statement to users of the PEACH system, which is undergoing some work and will experience some downtime.

DEFRA and IBM are combining two pieces of work tonight to minimise disruption. Technical staff have carried out a risk assessment of the work to be undertaken and have decided that it is too risky to deliver work on PEACH and work on sign-on software at the same time.

The statement read: “As a result, and with apologies for the inconvenience caused, there will now be two periods of PEACH downtime in the next 36 hours. These are:

“TONIGHT (Tuesday 19 Jan) 1900-2100: No access to PEACH. ALVS and CHIEF will still be available so any green traffic light “release” decisions sent to ALVS before 1900hrs will be transmitted to CHIEF on receipt of a matching customs entry.

“Tomorrow (Wednesday 20 Jan) 1230-1430: No access to PEACH. ALVS and CHIEF will still be available so any green traffic light “release” decisions sent to ALVS before 1200hrs will be transmitted to CHIEF on receipt of a matching customs entry.

“Again, our apologies for the disruption caused.”