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

To ask His Majesty's Government how they plan to support plant health professionals to guard against unknown and novel pests and diseases not currently listed on the UK Plant Health Risk Register.

Pests are added to the UK Plant Health risk register based on horizon scanning for new threats to plants in the UK, carried out by Defra’s plant health Risk and Horizon Scanning Team. A variety of scientific and other sources are used and the process is dynamic, with new pests regularly added in response to information gathered during such horizon scanning. Risks of existing pests are also regularly reviewed in response to new information. The ‘Risk Register News’ section on the Risk register website can be used to check which pests have recently been added or reviewed.

A risk-based approach to import inspections is undertaken at the UK border, to protect plant health professionals and others against known threats as well as new ones. Import requirements and inspection rates are kept under continuous review and adjusted as necessary, for example in response to an upsurge of interceptions of pests or a new threat emerging.

If a pest is identified at an import inspection, or through inland surveillance, which has not been identified during the horizon scanning process described, or has not yet been regulated, Article 29 of the plant health regulation (PHR), assimilated Regulation (EU) 2016/2031, applies. This requires action to be taken against any pest which on the basis of a preliminary assessment meets the criteria to be a GB quarantine pest. Where a pest which is not present in GB is considered to meet the criteria to be a GB quarantine pest, action would be taken against plants or plant products it has been found on, most likely resulting in their destruction.