HMRC have informed us that there will be scheduled maintenance on the Customs Declaration Service (CDS), the CDS service will be unavailable to all users on Saturday 26 September 2026 from 7pm until 8.30am on Sunday 27 September 2026. 

Please note that this outage will be longer than usual. We encourage you to make sure you take the appropriate action as described below to minimise disruption to your business. 

Declarations submitted during this timeframe will be processed at the end of the downtime. 

Creating, updating, or embarking a goods movement reference (GMR) that are linked to CDS could be affected during the times listed.  For guidance on GVMS please refer to the GVMS service availability and issues page. 

For import movements using GVMS during the outage – customers should check the declaration status and arrive where necessary. Read the guidance on how to manually arrive your goods in the UK. 

If moving consignments containing controlled goods with pre-lodged declarations, follow published guidance and attend port inspection facilities / Inland Border Facilities for goods to be inspected and released. 

If exporting goods from locations which require an arrived export, submit your declaration and obtain permission to progress (P2P) before the outage. If exporting goods from any other location, you will need to arrive at the border location and obtain P2P prior to the outage or wait until after the outage to move your goods. Follow the guidance on which locations require an ‘arrived’ export declaration before moving goods. 

The HMRC trader guidance details changes that may affect how CDS declarations are completed. 

These changes will only apply from 26 September onwards. As a result, any pre-lodged Declarations due to arrive on or after the release date and impacted by the changes outlined in the HMRC trader guidance, will need to be amended to comply with the updated requirements. Declarations that are not updated will be rejected.