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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he is taking steps to mitigate the potential impact of increases in import costs at Dover on the efficiency of haulage operations.

The new import health control regime aims to achieve the lowest regulatory obligation for businesses, consistent with the need to protect biosecurity and public health and to safeguard the UK’s reputation for high regulatory standards. The additional costs for businesses associated with the BTOM are substantially less than they would have been if we had extended the inherited EU 3rd country model, currently applied to non-EU goods, to all imports.