Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Customs Declaration Service and its Bulk Import Reduced Data Set, how many entries were logged under Customs Procedure Code 0020 21V in each year since 2022.

For the purposes of this answer, “entries” have been interpreted as customs declarations.

The table shows the number of customs declarations logged on the Customs Declaration Service (CDS) under Customs Procedure Code (CPC) 0020 21V, which is used for the Bulk Import Reduced Data Set (BIRDs).

These figures represent the number of declarations submitted to CDS under CPC 0020 21V only.

It should be noted that the figures are not directly comparable across years. In 2022 and 2023 a substantial proportion of BIRDs declarations were submitted via the legacy CHIEF system, under CPCs 4900003 and 4000003, and are therefore not included in the CDS figures shown above. In 2022 around 21% of BIRDs declarations were submitted via CDS, rising to around 75% in 2023.

The figures also exclude BIRDs declarations submitted using multiple additional procedure codes and therefore do not represent total BIRDs volumes.

Number of customs declarations are rounded to the nearest thousand.

You should note that a BIRDs declaration can cover multiple consignments.