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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the overnight holding of perishable fruit consignments at borders on affected businesses; and what steps his Department plans to take to help minimise delays for just-in-time supply chains in the fresh produce sector.

For Plants and Plant Products, APHA will aim to inspect consignments within four hours of them being presented for a physical inspection.

However, a small minority of fruit and vegetables are subject to 100% inspection due to the level of pest and disease risk and may be held in the event that the goods are not available for inspection.

The time taken to conduct checks is subject to a ‘Service Level Agreement’ (SLA), details of which are available on Gov.uk. Our teams have been working closely with traders to ensure checks are completed effectively and swiftly to avoid delays. We are confident BCP capacity, including staff resource, and opening times are sufficient for the current volume of checks. We continue to work with traders to ensure their documentation is accurately filled out before starting their journey and have published guidance to traders and drivers on the requirements of BCP inspections to help reduce waiting times.