Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect of the limit on bringing more than five dogs to the UK on the efforts to rescue and re-home dogs.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The regulations governing the non-commercial movements of cats, dogs and ferrets stipulate that people cannot bring more than 5 pets per person into the UK unless they are attending or training for a competition, show, sporting event (and written evidence of registration is required). However, dogs imported into the UK for rescue or rehoming must be moved under the commercial ‘Balai Directive’ regulations, which has different requirements. These regulations place no limits on consignment sizes. Any decisions made by the carriers (such as ferries and trains) to restrict consignment sizes in ways not required by the regulations are commercial decisions to which the Government is not party.
Anybody wishing to move animals into the UK during these unprecedented times must plan all journeys carefully, ensuring that the proposed journey is realistic and complies with all relevant regulations and legislation around the movement of animals throughout the animals’ entire journey, including welfare in transport, as well as relevant COVID-19 legislation.
The end of the Transition Period may open up new opportunities for managing our own commercial and non-commercial import and pet travel arrangements. The Government will be considering our pet travel and import arrangements (including for puppies and kittens) as part of cracking down on puppy smuggling in line with our manifesto commitment.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
What recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on preparations for meat exports to the EU after the transition period.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
We are implementing processes to ensure that meat can continue to be exported to the EU from 1 January 2021, in line with EU import rules. We are hosting webinars to help traders familiarise themselves with those export processes, including for the Association Independent Meat Suppliers and International Meat Trade Association. We have also developed a Groupage Export Facilitation Scheme to support the export of products from complex but stable supply chains, including certain meat products and preparations.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when the Government next plans to undertake negotiations with the EU on animal health and identification marks.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
We want a relationship with the EU which is based on friendly cooperation between sovereign equals, and centred on free trade. In the circumstances, we have no plans to ask for special arrangements on the use of health or identification marks for British exports to the EU. The Food Standards Agency is finalising its new guidance to the food industry covering which health and identification marks should be used on products of animal origin after the end of the Transition Period. We anticipate that this will be published shortly.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what timetable he has set for the new online system to process Animal Export Health Certificates to be completed.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The Export Health Certificates (EHC) Online service has been available for trade with third countries since June 2020. It replaces the current manual process for applying for EHCs.
The 150 most frequently used third country EHCs (representing 80% of current throughput) are available via the EHC Online service. There will be further releases of third country EHCs on the online service before the end of 2020.
APHA plan to make EHCs for EU trade available via EHC Online from mid-October. This will offer traders visibility of the documentation they will be required to use at the end of the transition period.
The EHC Online service has been developed with the capability to meet future demand in export trade. Defra estimate that up to an additional 300,000 Export Health Certificates may be required annually to facilitate EU trade. The EHC Online system has been designed and stress tested to process transactions in excess of this.