UK customs at Heathrow: allowances, channels, and what to declare

Customs is the check on goods entering the country, run by Border Force (a UK Home Office agency) on behalf of HMRC and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). At Heathrow you meet customs after baggage reclaim, before the exit into the arrivals hall. There is no customs check before you collect your bags.

Two things happen at customs. First, you choose a channel (green or red) based on whether you have anything to declare. Second, Border Force officers may stop and search any passenger going through either channel; a green-channel pass is not a guarantee of no inspection. Officers look for goods over the personal allowance, banned or restricted items, undeclared cash above £10,000, and commercial-quantity goods being brought in for resale.

The rules on this page apply to arrivals into Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales) at Heathrow. Northern Ireland operates under a different customs regime; if your onward travel takes you there or you are arriving from there, check gov.uk for the Northern Ireland-specific rules. Heathrow passport control is the step before customs in the arrival sequence, and first time in the UK covers the broader picture for visitors new to the country.

Two channels at Heathrow customs: green and red. The blue channel that used to handle European Union arrivals was abolished at Great Britain airports after the Brexit transition period ended on 31 December 2020; you may see legacy signage but the blue channel is no longer in operational use.

Green channel: nothing to declare. Use this if everything in your baggage is within the personal allowance, you have no banned or restricted items, and you have under £10,000 in cash. Walk through; Border Force may stop you for a spot check, in which case answer honestly about what is in the bag.

Red channel: goods to declare. Use this if you exceed any allowance (alcohol, tobacco, or the £390 other-goods cap), if you are carrying restricted items that require a declaration, if you are bringing in £10,000 or more in cash, or if you have commercial-quantity goods. A Border Force officer assesses the goods and tells you what duty or tax is payable; you pay on the spot by card or bank transfer.

If you are unsure which channel applies, the safe choice is the red channel. Declaring something you did not need to declare costs nothing; failing to declare something you should have declared can mean seizure, fines, or in serious cases prosecution.

The alcohol allowance is split into three groups. You can take a full allowance from each group; the third group can also be split between spirits and the lower-strength category.

The third group can be split: 2 litres of spirits (half the spirits allowance) plus 4.5 litres of fortified wine (half the lower-strength allowance) uses the full third-group allowance. The beer and still-wine allowances are separate and cannot be combined with the third group.

You must be 17 or over to claim any alcohol allowance. Under-17s have no personal allowance for alcohol or tobacco even if travelling with a parent or guardian. The 17-year-old allowance threshold is separate from the UK minimum age for buying alcohol, which is 18.

Alcohol bought at a duty-free shop at your departure airport counts toward your UK arrival allowance the same as alcohol bought anywhere else. A 1-litre bottle of spirits from duty-free uses 1 litre of your 4-litre spirits allowance.

The tobacco allowance is split into five categories. You can take a full allowance of one category, or split between categories.

You can split across categories: 100 cigarettes (half) plus 25 cigars (half) uses the full allowance. The minimum age is 17, the same as alcohol. Tobacco bought at duty-free counts toward the UK allowance; two cartons of 200 cigarettes (400 total) from a departure duty-free shop is over the 200-cigarette allowance and triggers a red-channel declaration.

The other-goods allowance covers everything that is not alcohol, tobacco, or fuel. It includes gifts, electronics, clothing, jewellery, perfume, watches, and personal items not for resale.

The allowance is £390 per person for most arrivals (commercial flight, ferry, Eurostar). It is £270 per person for arrivals by private plane or private boat. The figure is the value you paid for the goods, not the duty-free price or the UK retail price: if you bought something for £150 abroad and it would retail in the UK for £200, the £150 you paid is the relevant figure.

The allowance is per person and cannot be transferred. A family of four has £1,560 of combined other-goods allowance (4 multiplied by £390), with each person's share applying to the goods that person is carrying. You cannot pool the headroom to cover an excess on one person's goods.

You must declare cash if you are entering or leaving Great Britain from outside the UK and carrying £10,000 or more in cash, or the equivalent in any other currency. The threshold applies per person; family or group totals aggregate, so a family of four each carrying £3,000 is over the £10,000 limit on the group total and must declare.

Two ways to declare. Online, up to 72 hours before travel, through the cash-declaration form at gov.uk/bringing-cash-into-uk. On arrival, at the red channel, by telling a Border Force officer. If no officer is present and you cannot find one, call the Border Force on 0300 322 9434. Note that the cash declaration window (72 hours) is shorter than the goods declaration window (120 hours), and the two use separate online forms.

Cash includes notes and coins, bearer-negotiable instruments (cheques, promissory notes, money orders), bullion coins, and gold of 99.5% purity or higher (in bars or nuggets) of 1 gram or more. Failure to declare can lead to seizure of the cash and a penalty up to £5,000.

Some goods are banned regardless of value or quantity. Others are restricted and need paperwork. The main banned categories are controlled drugs (Class A, B, and C), offensive weapons including flick knives, gravity knives, butterfly knives, and knuckledusters, self-defence sprays containing CS or capsaicin (pepper spray), indecent and obscene material, and counterfeit goods that infringe trademarks or copyright.

Restricted categories that need paperwork or permission include firearms and ammunition (require a UK licence), rough diamonds (require a Kimberley Process certificate), products from endangered species under the CITES convention (ivory, certain furs and exotic leathers, some tropical hardwoods, some traditional Chinese medicines), most live plants and seeds for planting (require a phytosanitary certificate), and realistic imitation firearms.

If you are not sure whether something is allowed, declare it at the red channel and ask. The full list is at gov.uk/bringing-goods-into-uk-personal-use/banned-and-restricted-goods.

Meat and dairy from the EU

Meat and dairy products from European Union and European Free Trade Association countries cannot be brought into Great Britain in personal baggage. The ban covers cattle, sheep, goat, and pig meat, plus all dairy products, and applies even to items bought duty-free at an EU departure airport. Sandwiches with meat or cheese fillings are covered. The maximum penalty for an undeclared import is £5,000.

Three narrow exceptions: powdered infant milk, infant food, and special food required for medical reasons are allowed up to 2kg per person, provided they do not need refrigeration before opening and are commercially packaged. Up to 10kg per person of meat and dairy from the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland is allowed as a combined allowance. Limited fish, bivalves, honey, and eggs are allowed in small quantities.

The Defra ban came into force on 12 April 2025 and remains in place at May 2026 with no announced lifting date. The stated reason is biosecurity, particularly against foot-and-mouth disease.

Plants and seeds

Most live plants and plant material for planting (cuttings, bulbs, seeds intended for sowing) need a phytosanitary certificate issued by the exporting country's plant health authority. A small set of low-risk items (some fruit, vegetables, nuts, and seeds for personal consumption) may be allowed without paperwork. The Defra plant health portal has the full list and the current restrictions.

You can declare goods online before you arrive in the UK, up to five days (120 hours) ahead of arrival, through gov.uk/duty-free-goods. The tool calculates the tax and duty owed, takes payment, and gives you a reference number to show at the red channel on arrival.

The online declaration is the faster route if you know you will be over an allowance. You can also pay any duty up to four hours after arrival through the same tool; after that the only option is the red channel. The online declaration covers excess alcohol, excess tobacco, excess other goods over £390, and goods you plan to sell. Cash declarations above £10,000 use the separate form at gov.uk/bringing-cash-into-uk.

The most-misunderstood rule on UK customs. If you exceed an allowance, you pay tax and duty on all the goods in that category, not just the amount over the limit.

Example: the still-wine allowance is 18 litres. Bring in 19 litres of still wine and you pay duty on all 19 litres, not on the 1-litre excess. The same applies to every category. Bringing 250 cigarettes (over the 200-cigarette allowance) means duty on all 250 cigarettes; bringing £450 of other goods (over the £390 allowance) means duty on the full £450.

The fix is the online declaration if you are slightly over, or splitting the goods between travellers if there are two of you with separate allowances. The online tool at gov.uk/duty-free-goods shows the duty due on a specific quantity before you pay, so you can model the outcome before deciding whether to come over.

If you do not declare excess goods and are stopped at the green channel, the goods can be seized, you can be fined, and in serious cases prosecuted. Declaring upfront is always the cheaper option.

If your connecting flight at Heathrow is on a single booking with bags checked through to your final destination, you do not pass through UK customs. International-to-international airside connections stay inside the international transit area and skip both immigration and customs.

You go through UK customs if you collect your bags at Heathrow (a separate booking, or a stop where the bag could not be through-checked), if you leave the airport landside, or if you change terminals through landside routes. Once you have collected a bag and passed through customs, anything in that bag has entered the UK and counts toward your allowance even if you re-check it for an onward flight. For practical detail on moving between terminals see transferring between Heathrow terminals.