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

At Stansted you reach customs after baggage reclaim and before the exit into the arrivals hall. There is no customs check before you collect your bags. Customs is run by Border Force, part of the Home Office, on behalf of HMRC, and the choice is between two channels.

The green channel means you have nothing to declare: everything is within your personal allowance, you have no banned or restricted items, and you are carrying under £10,000 in cash. You walk through, though Border Force can stop anyone for a spot check, so a green-channel pass is not a guarantee of no inspection. The red channel is for anyone over an allowance, carrying restricted goods, bringing in £10,000 or more in cash, or with goods to sell. An officer works out the duty and you pay on the spot. If you are unsure which applies, take the red channel: declaring something you did not need to costs nothing, while not declaring something you should have can mean seizure or a fine. These rules cover arrivals into Great Britain; Northern Ireland has its own regime.

The alcohol allowance is split into groups, and you can bring a full allowance from each. You must be 17 or over to claim any of it.

The last two rows are one combined group that you can split: 2 litres of spirits plus 4.5 litres of fortified wine uses it up, each being half an allowance. Beer and still wine are separate and do not come out of that group. Alcohol bought at a duty-free shop, whether at your departure airport or at Stansted on the way out, counts toward this allowance just like anything else.

Tobacco is split into categories. You can take a full allowance of one, or split across them.

Splitting works the same way as alcohol: 100 cigarettes plus 25 cigars is two half-allowances and fine. The minimum age is 17, the same as alcohol. Two cartons of cigarettes from a departure duty-free shop is 400, double the 200 allowance, so that needs the red channel.

The other-goods allowance covers everything that is not alcohol, tobacco or fuel: gifts, electronics, clothing, jewellery, perfume, watches and personal items not for resale. The limit is £390 per person for a commercial flight, dropping to £270 if you arrive by private plane or boat. The figure is what you paid, not the UK retail price, so something you bought abroad for £150 counts as £150 even if it sells for more here.

The allowance is per person and cannot be transferred. A family of four has £1,560 between them, but each person's £390 applies to the goods that person is carrying; you cannot use a relative's spare headroom to cover your own excess. The duty-free shops at Stansted, including World Duty Free, are airside on the way out, so anything bought there before a return leg counts the same as goods from anywhere else. The shopping and duty free page covers what is available.

You must declare cash if you bring £10,000 or more (or the equivalent in any currency) into Great Britain from outside the UK. The threshold is per person, and a group cannot split a single larger sum to stay under it: four people sharing £15,000 still have to declare. Cash here includes notes and coins, bankers' drafts and cheques, and certain bearer instruments.

Declare online at gov.uk/bringing-cash-into-uk before you travel, or tell a Border Force officer at the red channel on arrival. Failure to declare can lead to the cash being seized and a penalty of up to £5,000. One thing to know: the official Stansted page still phrases this as 10,000 euros for arrivals from outside the EU, which is older wording. The current Great Britain rule is the £10,000 figure on gov.uk, so use that.

The rule that catches most arrivals is meat and dairy. You cannot bring meat or dairy products from the EU into Great Britain for personal use, a biosecurity ban brought in during 2025 against foot-and-mouth disease and since extended to cover all EU countries. It is broad: the official Stansted guidance spells out that it includes sandwiches, cheese, cured meats, raw meats and milk, whether pre-packaged or bought duty-free. Narrow exceptions cover powdered infant milk, infant food and food needed for medical reasons in small amounts. The maximum penalty for an undeclared import is £5,000.

Other categories are banned outright or restricted: illegal drugs, offensive weapons such as flick knives and knuckledusters, self-defence sprays, and counterfeit goods are banned regardless of quantity. Firearms, certain plants and seeds, and products from endangered species under the CITES rules need paperwork or a permit. If you are not sure whether something is allowed, take the red channel and ask rather than risk it in the green channel. The full list is on gov.uk.

The rule people get wrong: if you go over an allowance, you pay tax and duty on the whole amount in that category, not just the part above the limit. Bring 19 litres of wine and you pay on all 19, not on the single extra litre. The same goes for tobacco and for the £390 other-goods cap. If you know you will be over, the cheapest route is to declare and pay online before you arrive at gov.uk, which shows the duty due before you commit and gives you a reference for the red channel. Splitting goods between two travellers with separate allowances is the other legitimate fix.

On the way out, do not count on a tax refund. The VAT refund scheme for visitors leaving Great Britain ended in 2021 and has not returned, so you cannot reclaim VAT on UK shopping at Stansted or any other Great Britain airport. The only real workaround is a ship-to-home service offered by some retailers, where the VAT is removed and the goods are posted to your overseas address. Northern Ireland keeps a separate refund scheme. For the broader arrival picture, the passport control page covers the step before customs, and the ways into London page covers getting on from the arrivals hall.