What Happened
HMRC updated its published list of software developers providing Customs Declaration Service software on 22 September 2026. The guidance page, hosted on GOV.UK, lets a business check which developers supply software capable of submitting declarations to CDS. HMRC provides no filing tool of its own for commercial traders, so every import and export entry reaches CDS either through one of these third-party products or through a customs agent who holds the software. The update is a maintenance change to the named list rather than an alteration to declaration rules, data requirements or filing deadlines.
Why the CDS Software List Matters at Declaration Level
If you self-file, the list is the starting point for the whole set-up. Alongside the software itself you need a GB EORI number, a CDS subscription through your Government Gateway account, and a payment route, which in most cases means a duty deferment account with a guarantee, a cash account, or immediate payment. Postponed VAT accounting is then flagged on the declaration itself rather than arranged separately. In practice most UK importers never open the software: their entries are filed by a customs agent alongside the transport booking, which is how clearance sits within our freight services.
The list exists because HMRC completed a long migration. CHIEF closed to import declarations in September 2022 and to export declarations in June 2024, moving the UK from a box-based system to the data element structure CDS uses. That change increased the number of fields a declarant must populate and made the accuracy of the data the importer supplies, particularly commodity codes, valuation and document codes, the main cause of rejections. It is worth noting the boundary here: goods you sell into the United States are declared under a separate regime run by us customs and border protection, and a CDS-capable product does not cover that leg.
Two checks are worth making now. Confirm your current provider still appears on the HMRC list and that the product covers the declaration categories you actually use, since import and export coverage, inward processing and simplified procedures under CFSP are not uniform across developers. Then confirm how you retrieve the MRN and the movement status, because that reference drives haulier collection at the port and the evidence trail for your VAT records. Test any change of provider well before a peak shipping period rather than during one.
Key Takeaway
Filing on CDS depends on software that HMRC lists but does not supply, so either your own provider or your agent has to hold it. The declaration still fails on data, not on the tool, which puts commodity codes, valuation and document codes at the centre of whether a consignment clears on arrival.
Market Impact for UK Traders
The cost split is the practical question for most businesses. Software licensing plus internal training only pays back at reasonable declaration volumes, and below that threshold a per-entry agent fee is generally the cheaper route, with the trade-off that you depend on someone else’s queue at cut-off. Importers running regular container volumes into Avonmouth, Southampton or Felixstowe tend to care more about turnaround at the point of arrival than about the licence fee, because a late entry means the haulier misses the collection slot and the box sits another day.
For exporters the picture is split by destination. Filing into CDS covers the UK side only, and a US-bound consignment is separately subject to the entry requirements of us customs and border protection, usually handled by the importer of record or their broker in the United States. That division of responsibility is set by the Incoterms 2020 rule on the contract, so agreeing terms before booking matters as much as the software question. Businesses selling under DDP take on both filings and should price that in.
Reported by the Plexus Freight team, from GOV.UK HMRC.
Source: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/list-of-software-developers-providing-customs-declaration-support
