HMRC Publishes Guidance on Verifying Emissions Data for UK CBAM

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has issued specific operational guidance for verifying emissions data under the UK Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).

For UK importers (liable persons) to use actual emissions data on their CBAM tax returns instead of default values, the overseas installation producing the goods must have monitored this data over a full calendar year (1 January to 31 December) and had the data formally verified.

The guidance outlines strict eligibility requirements for anyone acting as a verifier. Verifiers must be completely independent of the installation and must be accredited by an eligible accreditation body whose scope covers the specific installation’s production processes. Furthermore, accreditation must meet two specific International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) benchmarks:

• ISO/IEC 17029: Conformity assessment - General principles and requirements for validation and verification bodies.

• ISO 14065: General principles and requirements for bodies validating and verifying environmental information.

Once the verification process is complete, the verifier is required to create a formal verification report containing a "verification opinion statement" on whether the data is satisfactory.

The workflow concludes with the verifier issuing this report to the installation operator, who then passes either the full report or a good-specific verification summary to the UK importer. The importer will then use this information to report actual emissions to HMRC and must retain the document as compliance evidence.