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Guidance: Excise Movement and Control System: service availability and issues

  • 11 February 2022

    The planned downtime on Saturday 19 February 2022 and Saturday 26 February 2022 has been cancelled.

  • 20 January 2022

    The planned downtime from 9am to 10am on Saturday 19 February 2022 and 9am to 10am on Saturday 26 February 2022 has been changed and is now from 10am to 11am on Saturday 19 February 2022 and 10am to 11am on Saturday 26 February 2022.

  • 19 January 2022

    Essential firewall maintenance from 9am to 10am on Saturday 19 February 2022 and 9am to 10am on Saturday 26 February 2022 has been added.

  • 9 December 2021

    Thursday 9 December 2021 from 2:30pm to 3:30pm

  • 9 December 2021

    Planned downtime added from 2:30pm to 3:30pm on Thursday 9 December 2021.

  • 23 November 2021

    Planned downtime from 6pm to 9pm on Wednesday 1 December 2021 has been added.

  • 17 November 2021

    Planned downtime from 12:01am to 2:01am on Tuesday 23 November 2021 has been added.

  • 10 November 2021

    Planned downtime from 6pm to 8.40pm on Monday 15 November 2021 has been added.

  • 3 November 2021

    The service issue about submitting Report of Receipt (ROR) messages to EMCS using the HMRC Portal has now been resolved.

  • 19 October 2021

    Planned downtime for 21 October has been rescheduled to Thursday 28 October 2021, 5pm to 11pm.

  • 15 October 2021

    An issue submitting Report of Receipt (ROR) messages to EMCS using the HMRC Portal has been updated.

  • 13 October 2021

    Planned downtime from 5pm to 11pm on Thursday 21 October 2021 has been added.

  • 6 October 2021

    A service issue about submitting Report of Receipt (ROR) messages has been added.
    Planned downtime from 6pm to 7.30pm on Thursday 7 October 2021 has been added.

  • 5 October 2021

    Planned downtime from 6pm to 7.30pm on Tuesday 5 October 2021 has been added.

  • 4 October 2021

    Planned downtime from 11:59pm on Monday 4 October 2021 to 12:30am Tuesday 5 October 2021 has been added.

  • 1 October 2021

    Planned downtime from 12pm to 12:30pm on Tuesday 5 October 2021 has been added.

  • 13 September 2021

    Planned downtime from 5pm on Thursday 30 September 2021 to 1:30am on Friday 1 October 2021 has been added.

  • 13 August 2021

    The planned downtime from 6:30am to 8:30am on Tuesday 17 August 2021 has been cancelled. Full service will be available during this time.

  • 6 August 2021

    Planned downtime for the Excise Movement and Control System Legacy Portal from 6:30am to 8:30am Tuesday 17 August 2021 has been added.

  • 27 July 2021

    Planned downtime from Wednesday 11 August 11:59pm to 1:30am Thursday 12 August 2021 has been added.

  • 16 July 2021

    The ongoing network issues meaning some users of Excise Movement and Control System (EMCS) via third party apps were experiencing problems with submissions has been resolved.

  • 14 July 2021

    Service availability message added with details of ongoing network issues.

  • 13 July 2021

    Details of intermittent issues with EMCS added.

  • 2 July 2021

    There will no longer be downtime on between Thursday 8 and Friday 9 July.

  • 1 July 2021

    Planned downtime from 11:59pm on Thursday 8 July 2020 to 1:30am Friday 9 July 2020 has been added.

  • 7 June 2021

    The service issue about Northern Ireland traders sending or receiving goods from Latvia, to or from Northern Ireland located warehouses has been resolved.

  • 7 May 2021

    Planned downtime from 5pm to 10pm on Thursday 27 May 2021 has been added. Updated service issues information for all consignors submitting export movements, registered consignors submitting a movement for wine imported from the EU and XI consignors using third party software.

  • 26 February 2021

    The service issue message about registered consignors submitting a movement for wine imported from the EU has been updated.

  • 5 February 2021

    Multiple service issue messages added.

  • 12 January 2021

    The ‘SEED system planned downtime has been removed’, the information for ‘advance movements’ and ‘XI consignee issue’ have been updated; the services issues relating to ‘SEED system issue’ and ‘visibility of EMCS XI account on your business tax account – correction’ have been removed.

  • 4 January 2021

    A service issue message about XI Consignee has been added.

  • 24 December 2020

    A service issue message about SEED causing problems for EMCS and impacting some messages has been added.

  • 18 December 2020

    A service issues message about changes to the SEED reference data has been added.

  • 16 December 2020

    A service issues message about the visibility of EMCS XI account on your business tax account has been added.

  • 14 December 2020

    This page has been updated with planned downtime for the ECMS online service with a number of dates and times in December and January.

  • 4 December 2020

    The service issue affecting the availability of EMCS has been resolved.

  • 26 November 2020

    Details about an issue affecting the availability of the service has been added.

  • 4 September 2020

    The service issue about the rejection of movements from UK to the EU has been resolved.

  • 21 August 2020

    A service issues message about the rejection of movements from UK to the EU has been added.

  • 10 August 2020

    Planned downtime from 5pm to 5:30pm on Thursday 20 August 2020 has been added.

  • 17 July 2020

    Planned downtime from 5pm to 5:30pm on Thursday 30 July 2020 has been added.

  • 14 May 2020

    A services issues message about ‘Export Administrative Reference Codes (ARCs) on EMCS’ has been added.

  • 26 March 2020

    The planned downtime from 4.30pm to 9pm on Wednesday 1 April 2020 has been cancelled.

  • 13 March 2020

    Planned downtime from 4.30pm to 9pm on Wednesday 1 April 2020 has been added.

  • 13 February 2020

    Updated service issues message for ‘Missing Commodity Code information for January 2020 on UK-EMCS’ to confirm that the full commodity code information is now available.

  • 13 February 2020

    A services issues message about changes in EMCS functionality and the introduction of a shipping mark field has been added.

  • 7 February 2020

    There has been an update to the message about planned downtime from 5pm to 11pm on Wednesday 12 February 2020.

  • 30 January 2020

    A service issue about missing Commodity Code information for January 2020 on UK-EMCS has been added.

  • 27 January 2020

    Planned downtime from 5pm to 11pm on Wednesday 12 February 2020 has been added.

  • 10 January 2020

    The service issue about getting slow responses from EMCS has been resolved.

  • 9 January 2020

    A service issue about slow responses from EMCS has been added.

  • 29 November 2019

    You will be unable to use this service from 6pm to 8pm on Sunday 1 December 2019. Information about this issue has been added.

  • 12 November 2019

    You will be unable to use this service from 9pm on Thursday 14 November 2019 to 6am on Friday 15 November 2019. Information about this issue has been added.

  • 30 October 2019

    Planned downtime from 5pm to 11pm on Thursday 31 October 2019 has been cancelled.

  • 30 October 2019

    A service issue ‘Advance EMCS movements to EU countries for dispatch after 31 October 2019’ has been added.

  • 25 October 2019

    You will be unable to use this service from 5pm to 11pm on Thursday 31 October 2019. Information about this issue has been added.

  • 24 October 2019

    A service issue for ‘Creating advance movements to EU countries for dispatch later than 31 October 2019’ has been added.

  • 16 September 2019

    Information about the EMCS service issues from 9 September 2019 to 10 September 2019 has been added. The issues meant some third party users had problems submitting eAD movements to the EMCS system.

  • 7 June 2019

    Planned downtime for Tuesday 25 June 2019 4pm to 8pm has been added.

  • 27 February 2019

    All electronic UK EMCS messages, including movements created or amended between 11:26am on 30 November 2018 and 12:25pm on 3 December 2018 have not been received by EU member states. More information about this issue and what you should do in the meantime has been added.

  • 20 February 2019

    There may be partial disruption to this service on Tuesday 12 March from 6am to 7:30am. Information about this issue has been added. The service issue about electronic UK EMCS messages has now been resolved.

  • 8 February 2019

    Planned downtime for Saturday 16 February 2019 11am to 4pm has been added.

  • 25 January 2019

    The times for planned downtime on 5 February 2019 have been changed from midday to 7pm to midday to 8pm. More information about this issue has been added.

  • 16 January 2019

    You will be unable to use this service between midday and 7pm on Tuesday 5 February 2019. Information about this issue has been added.

  • 13 December 2018

    All electronic UK EMCS messages, including movements created or amended between 11:26am on 30 November 2018 and 12:25pm on 3 December 2018 have not been received by EU member states. More information about this issue and what you should do in the meantime has been added.

  • 27 November 2018

    Service issue for EMCS authentication has been added.

  • 23 November 2018

    EMCS delayed responses on 28 November 2018 from 6pm to 9pm has been added to the service issues section.

  • 16 November 2018

    Downtime previously planned for 17 and 18 November will now take place on 24 and 25 November.

  • 8 November 2018

    Service issue for Thursday 8 November 2018 from 6pm to 11pm has been added.

  • 1 November 2018

    Planned downtime for 3 and 4 November will now take place on 17 and 18 November.

  • 26 October 2018

    Planned downtime for 3 and 4 November added.

  • 15 August 2018

    Full service is now available for the Excise Movement and Control System.

  • 9 August 2018

    HMRC is aware of issues affecting EMCS traffic. This is being investigated as a high priority.

  • 12 June 2018

    The service issues section has been updated.

  • 16 February 2018

    EMCS service has been restored.

  • 8 February 2018

    ‘Maximum Journey Times (Days)’ have been amended for some Transport Mode Codes.

  • 7 February 2018

    Planned downtime section for 14 February 2018 has been amended with new information.

  • 5 February 2018

    Planned downtime from Wednesday 14 February 2018 5pm to one minute past midnight on Thursday 15 February 2018 has been added to this page.

  • 17 March 2017

    Planned downtime scheduled for 19 March 2017 has been cancelled.

  • 6 March 2017

    Planned downtime section amended with new information.

  • 14 February 2017

    Service availability section has been updated.

  • 8 February 2017

    Urgent message added to Service availability.

  • 8 December 2016

    Planned downtime section amended with new information.

  • 14 October 2016

    Planned downtime section amended with new time.

  • 27 September 2016

    Amendment to planned downtime for 16 October 2016.

  • 26 September 2016

    Planned downtime has been updated.

  • 28 July 2016

    The service issues section has been updated.

  • 21 July 2016

    Service issues message has been added to this page.

  • 6 June 2016

    Planned downtime has been updated.

  • 3 June 2016

    Planned downtime added to page.

  • 13 May 2016

    Planned downtime added to the page.

  • 3 March 2016

    Service issues section has been updated.

  • 26 February 2016

    Service issues section has been updated.

  • 2 February 2016

    Service issues section has been updated including details of the planned EMCS upgrade.

  • 13 January 2016

    Planned downtime message (expired) removed from page.

  • 6 January 2016

    Planned downtime has been added to this page.

  • 24 December 2015

    Service issues section has been updated.

  • 7 December 2015

    Planned downtime has been added to this page.

  • 28 October 2015

    Planned downtime section updated.

  • 15 October 2015

    Planned downtime section updated.

  • 14 October 2015

    Planned downtime section updated.

  • 25 September 2015

    Planned downtime for EMCS service has been added to this page.

  • 23 September 2015

    Planned downtime has been added to this page.

  • 24 August 2015

    First published.

  • 11 February 2022

    The planned downtime on Saturday 19 February 2022 and Saturday 26 February 2022 has been cancelled.

  • 20 January 2022

    The planned downtime from 9am to 10am on Saturday 19 February 2022 and 9am to 10am on Saturday 26 February 2022 has been changed and is now from 10am to 11am on Saturday 19 February 2022 and 10am to 11am on Saturday 26 February 2022.

  • 19 January 2022

    Essential firewall maintenance from 9am to 10am on Saturday 19 February 2022 and 9am to 10am on Saturday 26 February 2022 has been added.

  • 9 December 2021

    Thursday 9 December 2021 from 2:30pm to 3:30pm

  • 9 December 2021

    Planned downtime added from 2:30pm to 3:30pm on Thursday 9 December 2021.

  • 23 November 2021

    Planned downtime from 6pm to 9pm on Wednesday 1 December 2021 has been added.

  • 17 November 2021

    Planned downtime from 12:01am to 2:01am on Tuesday 23 November 2021 has been added.

  • 10 November 2021

    Planned downtime from 6pm to 8.40pm on Monday 15 November 2021 has been added.

  • 3 November 2021

    The service issue about submitting Report of Receipt (ROR) messages to EMCS using the HMRC Portal has now been resolved.

  • 19 October 2021

    Planned downtime for 21 October has been rescheduled to Thursday 28 October 2021, 5pm to 11pm.

  • 15 October 2021

    An issue submitting Report of Receipt (ROR) messages to EMCS using the HMRC Portal has been updated.

  • 13 October 2021

    Planned downtime from 5pm to 11pm on Thursday 21 October 2021 has been added.

  • 6 October 2021

    A service issue about submitting Report of Receipt (ROR) messages has been added.
    Planned downtime from 6pm to 7.30pm on Thursday 7 October 2021 has been added.

  • 5 October 2021

    Planned downtime from 6pm to 7.30pm on Tuesday 5 October 2021 has been added.

  • 4 October 2021

    Planned downtime from 11:59pm on Monday 4 October 2021 to 12:30am Tuesday 5 October 2021 has been added.

  • 1 October 2021

    Planned downtime from 12pm to 12:30pm on Tuesday 5 October 2021 has been added.

  • 13 September 2021

    Planned downtime from 5pm on Thursday 30 September 2021 to 1:30am on Friday 1 October 2021 has been added.

  • 13 August 2021

    The planned downtime from 6:30am to 8:30am on Tuesday 17 August 2021 has been cancelled. Full service will be available during this time.

  • 6 August 2021

    Planned downtime for the Excise Movement and Control System Legacy Portal from 6:30am to 8:30am Tuesday 17 August 2021 has been added.

  • 27 July 2021

    Planned downtime from Wednesday 11 August 11:59pm to 1:30am Thursday 12 August 2021 has been added.

  • 16 July 2021

    The ongoing network issues meaning some users of Excise Movement and Control System (EMCS) via third party apps were experiencing problems with submissions has been resolved.

  • 14 July 2021

    Service availability message added with details of ongoing network issues.

  • 13 July 2021

    Details of intermittent issues with EMCS added.

  • 2 July 2021

    There will no longer be downtime on between Thursday 8 and Friday 9 July.

  • 1 July 2021

    Planned downtime from 11:59pm on Thursday 8 July 2020 to 1:30am Friday 9 July 2020 has been added.

  • 7 June 2021

    The service issue about Northern Ireland traders sending or receiving goods from Latvia, to or from Northern Ireland located warehouses has been resolved.

  • 7 May 2021

    Planned downtime from 5pm to 10pm on Thursday 27 May 2021 has been added. Updated service issues information for all consignors submitting export movements, registered consignors submitting a movement for wine imported from the EU and XI consignors using third party software.

  • 26 February 2021

    The service issue message about registered consignors submitting a movement for wine imported from the EU has been updated.

  • 5 February 2021

    Multiple service issue messages added.

  • 12 January 2021

    The ‘SEED system planned downtime has been removed’, the information for ‘advance movements’ and ‘XI consignee issue’ have been updated; the services issues relating to ‘SEED system issue’ and ‘visibility of EMCS XI account on your business tax account – correction’ have been removed.

  • 4 January 2021

    A service issue message about XI Consignee has been added.

  • 24 December 2020

    A service issue message about SEED causing problems for EMCS and impacting some messages has been added.

  • 18 December 2020

    A service issues message about changes to the SEED reference data has been added.

  • 16 December 2020

    A service issues message about the visibility of EMCS XI account on your business tax account has been added.

  • 14 December 2020

    This page has been updated with planned downtime for the ECMS online service with a number of dates and times in December and January.

  • 4 December 2020

    The service issue affecting the availability of EMCS has been resolved.

  • 26 November 2020

    Details about an issue affecting the availability of the service has been added.

  • 4 September 2020

    The service issue about the rejection of movements from UK to the EU has been resolved.

  • 21 August 2020

    A service issues message about the rejection of movements from UK to the EU has been added.

  • 10 August 2020

    Planned downtime from 5pm to 5:30pm on Thursday 20 August 2020 has been added.

  • 17 July 2020

    Planned downtime from 5pm to 5:30pm on Thursday 30 July 2020 has been added.

  • 14 May 2020

    A services issues message about ‘Export Administrative Reference Codes (ARCs) on EMCS’ has been added.

  • 26 March 2020

    The planned downtime from 4.30pm to 9pm on Wednesday 1 April 2020 has been cancelled.

  • 13 March 2020

    Planned downtime from 4.30pm to 9pm on Wednesday 1 April 2020 has been added.

  • 13 February 2020

    Updated service issues message for ‘Missing Commodity Code information for January 2020 on UK-EMCS’ to confirm that the full commodity code information is now available.

  • 13 February 2020

    A services issues message about changes in EMCS functionality and the introduction of a shipping mark field has been added.

  • 7 February 2020

    There has been an update to the message about planned downtime from 5pm to 11pm on Wednesday 12 February 2020.

  • 30 January 2020

    A service issue about missing Commodity Code information for January 2020 on UK-EMCS has been added.

  • 27 January 2020

    Planned downtime from 5pm to 11pm on Wednesday 12 February 2020 has been added.

  • 10 January 2020

    The service issue about getting slow responses from EMCS has been resolved.

  • 9 January 2020

    A service issue about slow responses from EMCS has been added.

  • 29 November 2019

    You will be unable to use this service from 6pm to 8pm on Sunday 1 December 2019. Information about this issue has been added.

  • 12 November 2019

    You will be unable to use this service from 9pm on Thursday 14 November 2019 to 6am on Friday 15 November 2019. Information about this issue has been added.

  • 30 October 2019

    Planned downtime from 5pm to 11pm on Thursday 31 October 2019 has been cancelled.

  • 30 October 2019

    A service issue ‘Advance EMCS movements to EU countries for dispatch after 31 October 2019’ has been added.

  • 25 October 2019

    You will be unable to use this service from 5pm to 11pm on Thursday 31 October 2019. Information about this issue has been added.

  • 24 October 2019

    A service issue for ‘Creating advance movements to EU countries for dispatch later than 31 October 2019’ has been added.

  • 16 September 2019

    Information about the EMCS service issues from 9 September 2019 to 10 September 2019 has been added. The issues meant some third party users had problems submitting eAD movements to the EMCS system.

  • 7 June 2019

    Planned downtime for Tuesday 25 June 2019 4pm to 8pm has been added.

  • 27 February 2019

    All electronic UK EMCS messages, including movements created or amended between 11:26am on 30 November 2018 and 12:25pm on 3 December 2018 have not been received by EU member states. More information about this issue and what you should do in the meantime has been added.

  • 20 February 2019

    There may be partial disruption to this service on Tuesday 12 March from 6am to 7:30am. Information about this issue has been added. The service issue about electronic UK EMCS messages has now been resolved.

  • 8 February 2019

    Planned downtime for Saturday 16 February 2019 11am to 4pm has been added.

  • 25 January 2019

    The times for planned downtime on 5 February 2019 have been changed from midday to 7pm to midday to 8pm. More information about this issue has been added.

  • 16 January 2019

    You will be unable to use this service between midday and 7pm on Tuesday 5 February 2019. Information about this issue has been added.

  • 13 December 2018

    All electronic UK EMCS messages, including movements created or amended between 11:26am on 30 November 2018 and 12:25pm on 3 December 2018 have not been received by EU member states. More information about this issue and what you should do in the meantime has been added.

  • 27 November 2018

    Service issue for EMCS authentication has been added.

  • 23 November 2018

    EMCS delayed responses on 28 November 2018 from 6pm to 9pm has been added to the service issues section.

  • 16 November 2018

    Downtime previously planned for 17 and 18 November will now take place on 24 and 25 November.

  • 8 November 2018

    Service issue for Thursday 8 November 2018 from 6pm to 11pm has been added.

  • 1 November 2018

    Planned downtime for 3 and 4 November will now take place on 17 and 18 November.

  • 26 October 2018

    Planned downtime for 3 and 4 November added.

  • 15 August 2018

    Full service is now available for the Excise Movement and Control System.

  • 9 August 2018

    HMRC is aware of issues affecting EMCS traffic. This is being investigated as a high priority.

  • 12 June 2018

    The service issues section has been updated.

  • 16 February 2018

    EMCS service has been restored.

  • 8 February 2018

    ‘Maximum Journey Times (Days)’ have been amended for some Transport Mode Codes.

  • 7 February 2018

    Planned downtime section for 14 February 2018 has been amended with new information.

  • 5 February 2018

    Planned downtime from Wednesday 14 February 2018 5pm to one minute past midnight on Thursday 15 February 2018 has been added to this page.

  • 17 March 2017

    Planned downtime scheduled for 19 March 2017 has been cancelled.

  • 6 March 2017

    Planned downtime section amended with new information.

  • 14 February 2017

    Service availability section has been updated.

  • 8 February 2017

    Urgent message added to Service availability.

  • 8 December 2016

    Planned downtime section amended with new information.

  • 14 October 2016

    Planned downtime section amended with new time.

  • 27 September 2016

    Amendment to planned downtime for 16 October 2016.

  • 26 September 2016

    Planned downtime has been updated.

  • 28 July 2016

    The service issues section has been updated.

  • 21 July 2016

    Service issues message has been added to this page.

  • 6 June 2016

    Planned downtime has been updated.

  • 3 June 2016

    Planned downtime added to page.

  • 13 May 2016

    Planned downtime added to the page.

  • 3 March 2016

    Service issues section has been updated.

  • 26 February 2016

    Service issues section has been updated.

  • 2 February 2016

    Service issues section has been updated including details of the planned EMCS upgrade.

  • 13 January 2016

    Planned downtime message (expired) removed from page.

  • 6 January 2016

    Planned downtime has been added to this page.

  • 24 December 2015

    Service issues section has been updated.

  • 7 December 2015

    Planned downtime has been added to this page.

  • 28 October 2015

    Planned downtime section updated.

  • 15 October 2015

    Planned downtime section updated.

  • 14 October 2015

    Planned downtime section updated.

  • 25 September 2015

    Planned downtime for EMCS service has been added to this page.

  • 23 September 2015

    Planned downtime has been added to this page.

  • 24 August 2015

    First published.