SPE02050 - Roles and responsibilities: supervising offices
Source: gov.uk (2025-11-24)


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For full authorisations, the supervising office contact details will usually be the same as for the authorising office see SPE02040 (https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/customs-special-procedures/spe02040). The authorisation letter should include the contact details of the supervising office.

In regulation terms the supervising customs office is the office that will be responsible for monitoring compliance with the conditions and requirements of the special procedure after the authorisation has been issued.

Whilst it is accepted that no single office will carry out all the controls and checks necessary, the supervising office must be identified to:
- provide post authorisation assurance activity
- co-ordinate any roles that will need to be carried out by other offices to ensure that there is a full audit trail of imports, re-exports and activities carried out and
- provide a central contact point for other offices/teams and the traders with any queries about use or changes to an authorisation.
Some of the roles of the supervising office are specifically covered in the legislation. Others can be inferred from the special procedure used, the authorisation granted and any simplifications that may have been approved.

The supervising office must co-ordinate any roles that need to be carried out by other offices to ensure that there is a full audit trail of imports, exports and activities carried out. The supervising office should also be the central contact point for a trader with any queries about use or changes they wish to make to their authorisation. Where an assurance event is carried out, it is important that the results of the event are fed back to the supervising office to help them evaluate the impact and improve the quality of their risk assessment and support to local compliance.

Where supervising offices are unable for any reason to comply with the supervisory requirements, they must ensure they contact CSP Policy team for advice.

Supervising office responsibilities will include:

(This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)
- monitoring activity against the requirements of the special procedure authorisation
- retaining records relating to an authorisation
- considering and approving amendments to authorisations
- cancelling an authorisation where applicable and assurance that all goods held under the special procedure are properly disposed of and the relevant duties and taxes are paid
- dealing with any enquiries related to the authorisation from colleagues or trade
- considering applications to invalidate (and replace where necessary) customs declarations made in error forwarding the substitute entry to NCH for Customs Input Entry where this facility still exists
- checking post clearance C285 amendments and, if acceptable, forwarding them to the National Duty Repayment Centre (NDRC) in Salford considering requests to extend the period of discharge
- forwarding Bills of Discharge (where a requirement of the procedure) to BoD team (or other relevant office) for checking and assurance
- verifying rates of yield for processing operations
- verifying claims for equivalence where approved and scrutinising results of samples.
Note: Northern Ireland (NI) customs authorisations will continue to fall within the provisions of the Union Customs Code (UCC), as retained by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and CEMA 1979.