Sealed equipment inspection is a practical customs control check of a seal’s visible condition and recorded identity. In the HMRC and TIR material, the check concerns goods under customs control. It looks for visible interference, compares the seal serial number with the transport record and gives customs a documented basis for handling an irregularity.
An official customs seal is indicative: it helps identify goods under control, but it does not prove that the goods are lawful, complete or unchanged. Inspection of the seal is therefore a control check rather than an examination of the contents. Its value lies in joining what customs can observe on the seal to the identity recorded for the movement.
Visible condition and recorded identity
A TIR seal check brings two questions together. Customs examines the seal for visible signs of tampering and checks whether its serial number agrees with the transport record. The condition check addresses what can be seen on the seal, while the serial comparison addresses whether the observed identifier matches the recorded one. Both parts are needed to describe what customs found about the seal and its recorded identity.
HMRC requires authorised trader seals to carry unique identifying marks and to be recorded by serial number. Their marks and numbers must also appear on the documents accompanying the goods. The accompanying record provides the number against which the observed seal can be checked. Visible condition and documentary identity remain separate observations, and the inspection brings them together without turning either one into an examination of the goods themselves.
Recording and handling an irregularity
If the check finds an irregularity, visible tampering or a defect, customs follows the applicable TIR irregularity procedure. The applicable procedure is tied to the customs or transit arrangement governing the movement, so sealed equipment inspection is a practical description rather than one identical checklist and outcome for every arrangement. The observation is handled through the procedure that applies to those goods and that movement.
When a seal has been broken or tampered with, HMRC guidance requires the event to be reported and accounted for on the transit declaration. Customs may authorise the movement to continue, reseal the goods and endorse the record. After the report and account, continuation, resealing and endorsement remain customs decisions under the applicable procedure. The transit declaration records the event, while any resealing and endorsement show how customs has dealt with the movement from that point.
