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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of official (a) vets and (b) inspectors available to certify export health certificates; and if he will make a statement.

The numbers of Official Veterinarians (OVs) authorised to carry out export certification under each Official Control Qualification (Veterinary) (OCQ(V)), as recorded by the Animal and Plant Health Agency on 19/05/21, are listed below. Note that an OV must hold the relevant OCQ to carry out export health certification for a particular commodity type, and that OVs may hold more than one qualification.

There are also 1505 Food Competent Certifying Officers working across Local Authorities who can certify some exports and therefore contribute towards certification capacity.