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Guides / UK Timber Regulations · Updated 30 September 2026

UK Timber Regulations: importing wood products from Poland and the EU

If you import furniture, flooring or timber from Poland or elsewhere in the EU into Great Britain, you may be the operator responsible for due diligence under the UK Timber Regulations. Here is what GOV.UK says that involves.

This guide is also available in Polish.

When a lorry of oak flooring, a pallet of sawn boards or a container of wooden furniture arrives in Great Britain from Poland, two separate sets of rules apply. Customs deals with the declaration, duty and VAT. The UK Timber Regulations deal with a different question: can the business placing that wood on the GB market show it was not illegally harvested? This guide explains the second question, which many first-time importers only discover when their own customer asks for evidence.

Which rules apply in Great Britain

GOV.UK describes two regimes for England, Scotland and Wales. The UK Timber Regulations (often shortened to UKTR) replaced the European Timber Regulation after the UK left the EU. The UK FLEGT regulations sit alongside them and cover timber from countries that have a voluntary partnership agreement with the UK.

The legal basis includes the Timber and Timber Products (Placing on the Market) Regulations 2013, the Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade Regulations 2012, and the retained version of Regulation (EU) No 995/2010, as amended by EU exit legislation. The obligations are therefore about placing timber on the GB market, not about crossing the border as such. Customs clearance does not by itself prove compliance.

Operator or trader: which one are you?

The rules split businesses into two roles, and the duties are quite different.

RoleWho it isMain duty
OperatorThe business that first places timber or timber products on the GB market. A UK company buying furniture from a Polish factory and selling or using it in Great Britain is normally in this position.Run a due diligence system before placing the goods on the market.
TraderA business that buys or sells timber or timber products already placed on the GB market, for example a retailer buying from a UK importer.Keep records of who supplied the goods and, where applicable, who they were sold to.

For an EU seller shipping to a UK customer, the practical point is that the UK buyer usually carries the operator duty, but can only meet it with information the seller provides. That is why Polish exporters are increasingly asked for species names and harvest details alongside the EORI number and commercial invoice.

Which products are covered

GOV.UK states that the rules cover imported and domestic timber and a broad range of timber products, including composites such as furniture, pulp and paper. The product list is set out in the annex to the retained regulation by commodity code. Examples relevant to UK–EU trade include:

Two points often cause confusion. First, packing material used exclusively to support, protect or carry another product is excluded, so the pallet under a load of machinery is not itself a regulated timber product. It is still subject to plant health rules, covered in our guide to wood packaging and ISPM 15. Second, timber products that have completed their lifecycle and would otherwise be disposed of as waste are outside the definition, and where a product mixes virgin and recycled timber, GOV.UK says only the virgin timber needs to be assessed.

Because coverage follows the commodity code, getting the classification right on the import declaration matters for more than duty. Our guide to the CDS import declaration explains how the code is used.

The due diligence system

An operator must have a system in place before it places timber on the GB market. GOV.UK describes three elements:

GOV.UK notes that the depth of the assessment depends on factors such as the complexity of the supply chain, the risk attached to the species and the country, and the nature of the product. A single-species sawn board from a known forest is simpler than a piece of furniture combining veneers, board and solid wood from several sources, where each timber component needs to be traced.

In practice, UK buyers commonly ask their Polish or EU suppliers for:

Certification can support a risk assessment, but the legal duty sits with the operator's own system, not with a certificate.

Northern Ireland is different. GOV.UK states that Northern Ireland remains subject to the EU Timber Regulation. Due diligence checks are not required on timber entering Northern Ireland from EU or EEA countries, but they are required on timber moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland and on timber entering Northern Ireland directly from non-EU countries.

Records: what to keep and for how long

Traders must be able to identify, throughout the supply chain, the operators or traders who supplied the timber and, where applicable, the traders they supplied it to. The retained regulation requires them to keep that information for at least five years and provide it to the competent authority on request.

Operators should keep the evidence behind each due diligence decision: the information gathered, the risk assessment and any mitigation steps. Filing it by shipment, alongside the customs entry and supplier documents, makes an enforcement check far easier to answer.

FLEGT licences

FLEGT licences apply to timber from countries with an implemented voluntary partnership agreement. According to GOV.UK, Indonesia is currently the only such country. The operator must obtain the licence from the supplier and submit it to the Office for Product Safety and Standards for verification before the customs declaration is made. Once verified, the timber is considered legal, removing the obligation to exercise due diligence for it.

This matters for EU re-exports. Indonesian timber products bought through a Polish or German distributor still need to be looked at carefully, because the licence requirement follows the timber, not the last country of dispatch.

The role of the Office for Product Safety and Standards

GOV.UK names the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) as the body enforcing the timber rules in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Its role is described as checking that traders and operators keep appropriate records, ensuring operators' due diligence systems are fit for purpose, and verifying FLEGT licences. OPSS also takes compliance enquiries and reports of suspected non-compliance through the contact details on the GOV.UK page.

OPSS is not HMRC. The customs declaration, duty and VAT are separate, and a cleared shipment can still be the subject of a timber compliance check later.

How this fits with customs and plant health

A wood shipment from the EU can touch three sets of rules at once: customs, timber legality and plant health. GOV.UK's plant health guidance explains that some higher-risk timber and wood products from the EU need a phytosanitary certificate and pre-notification by the importer. The Easy Clearance article on timber and wooden product exports to the UK looks at the same topic from the Polish exporter's side. If you are deciding whether to handle the declaration yourself, see do you need a customs broker.

Related guides

Moving timber or furniture between Poland and the UK?

Easy Clearance is a UK–EU customs clearance agency handling import and export declarations, T1/T2 transit and UK–Poland removals. Its article covers timber exports to the UK from the exporter's side.

Read the Easy Clearance timber guide

Sources

General information, not legal, tax or customs advice. Rules change; confirm current requirements on gov.uk or with a registered agent before you ship.