Birmingham Airport customs and UK allowances

After passport control and the baggage carousels, the way out of Birmingham runs through customs, and it is a choice of two channels. The green channel is for travellers within every allowance with nothing to declare, and it is the one most holidaymakers use, a straight walk to the exit that Border Force may still spot-check. The red channel, or the red-point phone where a channel is unstaffed, is for anyone over an allowance or carrying something restricted. There is no blue channel at Birmingham any more; since Brexit, arrivals from the EU use the same red and green channels as everyone else.

The rule underneath is simple and worth taking seriously: choosing green while knowingly over the limit is a customs offence, not a technicality, and the penalties run to seizure of the goods and worse. If you are close to a limit or unsure, the honest move is the red channel or an online declaration before you fly. What you actually bought airside, and whether it was the bargain it looked, is the other half of this and sits in the duty free guide.

The alcohol allowance is more generous than most people realise. Per adult you can bring in 42 litres of beer and 18 litres of still wine, and then a further choice between 4 litres of spirits or 9 litres of sparkling or fortified wine such as Champagne, port or sherry. That last allowance splits, so 2 litres of spirits and 4.5 litres of fortified wine uses half of each. Tobacco is tighter: 200 cigarettes, or 100 cigarillos, or 50 cigars, or 250g of tobacco, or 200 sticks for heated tobacco devices, and again you can split it, 100 cigarettes and 25 cigars being half of each.

Everything else, the clothes, the electronics, the gifts and souvenirs, comes under a single value cap: £390 of goods per adult, dropping to £270 if you arrive by private plane or boat. Children get the same allowances except for the alcohol and tobacco, which need you to be 17 or over. A 17-year-old holds a full alcohol and tobacco allowance. These figures apply however you got here, from a fortnight in Spain or a month visiting family in India, because since Brexit Great Britain treats arrivals from the EU and the rest of the world alike for allowances. Note that duty-free shopping at the airport is now largely a tobacco-and-alcohol saving; the honest detail on that is in the duty free guide.

Allowance figures on this page are HMRC's, published at gov.uk/bringing-goods-into-uk-personal-use. They are the Great Britain allowances; Northern Ireland has its own rules.

The part that surprises people is the arithmetic. If you go over an allowance, you pay tax and duty on all the goods in that category, not merely the portion above the line. Bring 5 litres of spirits against a 4-litre allowance and the duty is charged on all 5, which is why nudging over rarely pays and why splitting a big drinks haul across the adults in your group matters. The same logic runs through the goods allowance: a single item worth more than £390 is declared and taxed on its full value.

Declaring is easier than it sounds. You can use the red channel on arrival, or, more conveniently, declare and pay online in advance, from 5 days (120 hours) before you are due to arrive in the UK, which is counted from your arrival rather than from the day you set off, through the UK government's service. That suits anyone bringing back a valuable single item or a drinks order over the limit, since it settles the tax before you reach the channel and you walk through with a receipt. Underclaiming to save a few pounds is not worth the risk; the penalties dwarf the duty.

The online declaration service, and the 5-day (120-hour) window, are at gov.uk/bringing-goods-into-uk-personal-use.

Cash has its own rule. Carrying £10,000 or more, in any currency, between Great Britain and a country outside the UK means you must declare it, online or to Border Force, and it applies to the total a family or group is carrying even if no individual is over. It is a declaration, not a charge, but failing to make it is a serious offence with the cash at risk. Food is the other common slip: the rule now runs the other way from how it used to, and it catches people returning from Europe. Because of ongoing animal disease outbreaks in the EU, you cannot bring in cheese, milk, butter, yoghurt, pork, beef, lamb, mutton, goat or venison from the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, the Faroe Islands or Greenland at all. The cured ham and the cheese from a trip to Spain or Italy are exactly what is prohibited. Separate restrictions apply to meat and dairy from countries outside the EU.

Then there are the outright bans and controls, the ones no allowance covers: offensive weapons, self-defence sprays, certain knives, indecent material, and souvenirs made from endangered species, coral, ivory, some skins and shells, which are seized and can bring a prosecution. If you are bringing anything unusual, medicines in quantity, a lot of a single product, or anything you suspect might be controlled, check the government's guidance before you pack rather than gambling on the green channel. For the rest of the arrival, from reclaim to the way home, the facilities guide and the transport hub take over.

Sources: cash rules at gov.uk/bringing-cash-into-uk, food and animal products at gov.uk/bringing-food-into-great-britain, and the banned and restricted list at gov.uk/bringing-goods-into-uk-personal-use.