Pack n Send Blog

Every country sets their own rules about what can shipped into and within their country.  Here is a list of restricted items for the United Kingdom, as listed by the United States Postal Service. These regulations apply to England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark and the Island of Man.

• Aerosols
• Ammunition, not including lead pellets, which are allowed.
• Live Animals 
• Firearms and any of their parts including toys, antiques, taser guns, air pistols, air rifles, paint-ball guns and imitation firearms and anything similar or bearing a resemblance to firearms. 
• Any items that violate British trademarks or copyright laws
• Asbestos
• Christmas crackers (holiday poppers)
• Clinical and Medical Waste
• Coins and any other valuable article including, jewels, precious stones, gold, platinum, or silver (whether or not it is manufactured)
• Counterfeit currency, postage stamps, and bank notes
• Dies and equipment for making imitations of any current postage stamp for denoting any rate of postage.
• Live Fish
• Frozen Food
• Frozen Water and bags of ice
• Anything made in foreign prisons, except for goods imported for a noncommercial purpose or of goods that are not manufactured in the United Kingdom.
• Human and Animal Ashes (cremated remains)
• Indecent and obscene prints, books, paintings, cards, lithographs, and other engravings, video tapes, films, or any other indecent or obscene articles.
• Car Batteries and other lead acid batteries including sealed lead acid batteries
• Lottery tickets and related advertisements for illegal lotteries.
• Medicines classified as flammable or toxic
• Radioactive materials and samples that are classified as radioactive using Table 2-12 of the latest edition of the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Technical Instructions — e.g., fissile material (uranium 235, etc.), thorium, luminous dials from aircraft, radioactive waste material, or uranium ores.
• Soil
• Soiled clothes and rags
• Electric Stun Guns
• Switchblade knives (also knows as flick knives) and gravity knives.
• Any kind of trash, including dirt

In addition to the list of International shipping to United Kingdom-Restricted items, here are a few of their more detailed restrictions about the shipping of animals, plants and medicines. These restrictions are also listed from the United States Postal Service:

• A consignment of live bees must contain only queen bees and their attendant workers; colonies are not permitted. Each consignment must be accompanied by an import license issued by the Dept. of Agriculture (DEFRA) and a health certificate issued by the country of origin.
• Crickets, Caterpillars, spiders, mealworms destroyers of noxious pests, cockroaches, silkworms, earthworms, ragworms lug worms fish fry and eggs, leeches, flies of the family Drosophilidae, maggots, pupae and chrysalides, and stick insects are admissible only for biomedical research.
• Medicines and drugs when sent for scientific purposes must be sent by veterinary surgeon, a practitioner, registered nurse, registered dental practitioner, or recognized institution or laboratory.
• Plants and parts of plants require an import permit issued by the appropriate Agricultural Department in the United Kingdom.
• Vaccines may be sent only by, or at the specific request of, a surgeon, qualified medical practitioner, registered nurse, registered dental practitioner, veterinary surgeon,  or recognized institution or laboratory.

Now that you know what you can't ship in the United Kingdom, here are a few interesting facts about the United Kingdom that you might not have known.

• The Windsor Castle is the largest Royal home.
• Big Ben is not the name of the famous clock in England, just the name of the bell inside the clock tower.
• Cab drivers in London have to pass elaborate exams that take six months and 3/4 of the test takers fail.
• The queen owns all the mute swans in the Thames river.
• England has special schools for nannies, and nannies make $40,000 a year as a starting salary.
• There was a time in the 1800s when on in four women in Britain had the name Mary.
• London was the first city to host the Olympics three times.
• There are more chickens in England than there are people
• The very first store to sell hot chocolate was in England

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