The Chair of the EFRA Committee, Sir Robert Goodwill, wrote to the Defra Secretary Steve Barclay, to raise the Committee’s concerns over the reported delays to the 30 April import checks.
The Committee has now received a reply to its letter, from Lord Douglas-Miller, the Minister for Biosecurity, Animal Health and Welfare at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Sir Robert Goodwill, said: “The UK’s departure from the European Union presented an opportunity to improve our biosecurity at the border against diseases such as African swine fever.
“Defra has said that there will be graduated approach to the introduction of checks and that they will be building up to full inspection rates over time, but it is disappointing that they have been unable to provide clear answers on when the measures will be scaled up to their intended capacity.
“We remain concerned about the measures that will be in place to safeguard against the potential non-compliance which could take place between the point of entry at the Port of Dover and Sevington, 22 miles away.”
In the written response, Lord Douglas-Miller, Minister for Biosecurity, Animal Health and Welfare, said it recognised that the introduction of these essential new controls could pose challenges initially for business and maintains the graduated approach will minimise disruption while protecting biosecurity.
“Our approach to compliance and enforcement will be carefully calibrated to balance an expectation that businesses will do their best to comply, with an understanding that there will be a period of adjustment to the new controls and the importance of minimising disruption to the flow of goods,” he writes.
“Competent authorities will be encouraged to take proportionate action on non-compliances identified which do not pose a significant risk to public, human, animal, or plant health. We will continue to pursue an approach of supporting businesses towards full compliance via guidance and warnings where possible and only escalating enforcement where necessary.”
He added it was never Defra’s intention that the end state for check rates would be achieved on 30 April, given the time needed for industry and competent health authorities to acclimatise to the new requirements.
But Defra is confident in beginning the graduated introduction of checks and will be carefully monitoring the rollout of the new checks and incrementally increase the range of medium-risk commodities called in for risk-based ID and physical checks, beginning with those assessed as presenting the greatest biosecurity risk
