Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which ports with regular ferry services to the UK he plans to designate as EU Border Inspection Posts by 29 March 2019.

Border Inspection Posts (BIPs) are commercial ventures set up by ports and airports which are inspected and approved for operation by the relevant Competent Authority and the Commission. Any BIPs at ports with regular ferry services to the UK would be approved by the Competent Authority of that EU Member State, not the Secretary of State.

As explained in the Technical Notice on “Importing animals and animal products if there’s no Brexit deal”, consignments originating in the EU will not initially be required to enter the UK through a BIP. For this reason we are not anticipating a significant increase in demand for BIPs at UK ports receiving ferries coming from the EU and have not received any applications for approvals of new BIPs.

A full list of current BIP facilities across the EU can be found here: https://ec.europa.eu/food/animals/vet-border-control/bip-contacts_en