Please follow the steps to register a business or organisation for the Plant Health Exports Service (PHES)

Step 1: Create a Government Gateway Account

1. Go to https://exporter.apply-plant-export-certificates.service.gov.uk. This will take you to the Government Gateway sign in page, click ‘Create sign in details’. 

2. Enter the email address you want associated with your Government Gateway account and click ‘Continue’.

3. You will receive a 6-digit code to your email address. Enter the 6-digit code to confirm your email address and click ‘Continue’.

4. Your email address will be confirmed, click ‘Continue’.

5. Enter your full name and click ‘Continue’.

6. Create a password and click ‘Continue’.

7. You need to set up a recovery word so that you can get back into Government Gateway if you forget your password. Click ‘Continue’.

8. Enter a recovery word and click ‘Continue’.

9. You have now created a Government Gateway Account. This 12-digit ID and password is to be used each time you log into your account.  Please remember to make a note of your Government Gateway ID and password.  Click ‘Continue’. 

Step 2: Creating a Defra Account for your UK based Business or Organisation

10. Please read the privacy notice detailing how we process and store your data and agree to the terms and conditions. Click ‘Continue’.

11. Choose business or organisation radio button, click ‘Continue’.

12. Choose where the business or organisation is registered to trade, select the UK radio button and click ‘Continue’. 

13. If your business or organisation is registered with Companies House, select yes, and click ‘Continue’.  If your organisation is not registered with Companies House, choose no and click ‘Continue’, then go to step 17 to complete the sole trader journey.

14. Enter your Companies House number and click ‘Continue’.

15. Confirm the Companies House registered address is correct, if correct select ‘Continue’.  If no address is returned, enter the post code in the look up table.

16. Enter the main contact details for the business or organisation, select ‘Continue’, and follow from step 19.

17. Select Sole Trader and click ‘Continue’.

18. Enter your name and click ‘Continue’.

19. Scroll down to Section 3. 

20. Click on the hyperlinks in turn to enter your name, contact details and security word and click ‘Continue’ after each, then click ‘Check your answers’.

21. Check your answers and click ‘Change’ to amend anything if required.

22. At the bottom of the page, tick ‘I am not a robot’ and then click ‘Continue’.

23. Your registration is complete, and you can now see your PHES dashboard.

Step 3: Adding team members to the organisation account

You can now add team members to the account. The team member(s) can be another administrator like yourself (which allows them to add and remove team members) or you can give them standard access (service access only).  We recommend that you have a minimum of two administrators for your organisation account.

24. Log into the Government Gateway account using your Government Gateway ID and password.

25. From the dashboard, select ‘Manage account’ (top right).

26. Click ‘Access your DEFRA account’ (bottom left). 

27. Click the hyperlink ‘Manage’ in the ‘Your accounts’ section (bottom left). 

28. Under ‘Manage team access’, click the hyperlink ‘Add a team member’.

29. Enter the email address of the person who you want to invite to your account and click ‘Continue’.

An invitation to join the account has been sent to the team member’s email address.  The team member will now complete a short registration process by clicking on the url within the invite (as for steps 1-9 and 20-23 above).  Once complete, a notification email is issued to the administrator to allocate account roles, service and service role.

Step 4: Assigning team member account, service and service role

You will have received an email informing you that a team member has completed their registration. You now need to assign them an account service and service role.  Click on the hyperlink ‘Give this person access to use online services’ within the email and go to step 30 below.

If not accessing the account via the hyperlink in the email, follow steps 24 – 27 as above:  

30. Click ‘Manage team access’.

31. Click on the hyperlink for the invited team member’s name.

32. Click ‘Give account access’.

33. Select admin or standard user and click ‘Continue’.

34. The team member has been given access, click ‘Continue’

35. Click ‘Give service access’.

36. Select ‘Apply for a Phytosanitary Certificate’ and click ‘Continue’.

37. Select the role (Plant Health Exporter) and click ‘Continue’. 

The appropriate access has now been given to the team member and an email has been sent to them to confirm their role.  Repeat steps 29 onwards to add more team members.