The Northern Ireland Protocol was part of the withdrawal agreement between the UK and the European Union following Brexit. Its main purpose was to prevent a hard border forming on the island of Ireland. It’s objectives are:
- Avoiding a hard border: The Protocol aimed at creating a free flow of goods between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland by keeping Northern Ireland under some EU rules. This meant checks wouldn’t be needed at the border.
- Northern Ireland’s relationship: While the rest of the UK left the EU’s Single Market and Customs Union, Northern Ireland remained under some of their regulations. This created a unique situation for Northern Ireland within the UK
- Goods moving from Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales) to Northern Ireland had to go through checks and paperwork to comply with EU rules
Under the Windsor Framework, the arrangements for sending parcels from Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales) to Northern Ireland will depend on whether they are sent to or from a private individual or a business
- Private Individuals:
Will be able to receive parcels sent from Great Britain just as they do today, not customs formalities required. - Business to Business:
Will be treated in line with usual customs regulations. Will be able to move with simplified clearance if they are eligible under the UK Internal Market Scheme (UKIMs)
Changes to consider
To comply with the new Windsor Framework regulations coming into effect on 30th September, we have released new fields to the system to help you and your clients pass the required data to your third party suppliers. You will need to consider these changes and make amendments to your system if you ship to Northern Ireland.
Client record
Once the UKIM number is made available on the address profile settings, you can enter the UKIM number on the Main address entry (available in the Client import/export utility)
When populated, this UKIM number will be passed to third-party carriers when shipping to Northern Ireland.
Booking Product Profile settings
The product profile configuration screen will now include a new field to enable called Transaction Type. This will allow you to declare a shipment as a Business to Business (B2B) movement and correctly send UKIM information.
The default system setting will declare movements as B2C unless this flag is used on the booking screen.
The rules in the system will be as follows:
- If ukimsNumber is populated within the Collection address block, use this value.
- If not, use the UKIM number stored on the client record.
- If ukimsNumber is populated within the Delivery address block, use this value.
- If blank no UKIM number will be sent.
- If the Transaction type is left blank the system will assume the shipment is a B2C movement.
The rules in the system will be as follows:
- If Sender UKIM is populated, use this value.
- If not, use the UKIM number stored on the client record.
- If Receiver UKIM is populated, use this value.
- If blank no UKIM number will be sent.
- If the Transaction Type is left blank the system will assume the shipment is a B2C movement.
Why do some carriers ask for different information?
The UK Government changes place additional requirements upon carriers to process the information they receive to support the Windsor Framework. For example, a shipper may base a delivery to a residential address as a B2C movement however the shipment was purchased on a business account meaning its a B2B movement. In some cases, carriers have elected to place this data requirement upon the shipper rather than determine this information themselves.
Metafour works with a variety of integrations to help normalise the changes each carrier requires as best we can. Certain carriers are applying additional mandatory data fields to help identify where UKIM information is required – e.g. transaction type. We try to keep additional mandatory fields to a minimum where possible to minimise disruption to existing setup however on some occasions these are necessary based on our carriers specifications.
Contact:
- Email: customersuccess@metafour.com
- Phone: +44 207 912 2000
