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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the guidance entitled Apply for CITES permits and certificates to move or trade endangered species, published on 17 July 2019, whether he is taking steps to digitise the end-to-end process for importing horticultural products into the UK.

A project to move CITES permitting online and improve the functionality of the system used to consider and issue CITES permits and certificates, is nearing completion. The new system is due to be formally rolled out early in the New Year. Interested traders are welcome to join the testing platform, which includes live applications. An assessment of the feasibility of e-permitting for CITES documents is scheduled for a later phase of this ongoing work.