Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the average time was between a consignment entering Sevington Border Control Post and leaving following (a) a physical inspection and (b) any other inspection between 30 April and 5 May 2024.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Monitoring and enforcing the border controls introduced under the BTOM is undertaken collaboratively on a site by site basis at each point of entry between Defra, Port Health Authorities (part of local authorities), the Animal and Plant Health Agency, Border Force and HMRC, and the Port Operators.
The department considers that this information is operationally - and in the case of Port Operators commercially - sensitive and should be withheld.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what instructions, if any, they have issued to (1) environmental health officers, and (2) other relevant officers, as to the future charging for port inspections on goods coming from Great Britain to Northern Ireland (a) in general, and (b) when the goods fail the inspection.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
On 31 January 2024, the Government published the Safeguarding the Union Command Paper. It set out proposals for a new UK internal market system, ensuring a permanent, smooth flow of goods within the UK’s internal market.
Under this new system, there will be no checks on goods moving within the UK internal market system. Checks will only be conducted as part of a risk or intelligence-led approach to tackle issues like criminality, abuse of the system, smuggling and disease risks.
Following the agreement of the Windsor Framework, the Border Target Operating Model sets out new arrangements for Irish goods and non-qualifying goods moving directly from the island of Ireland to GB from 31 January 2024. Physical checks on goods arriving at West Coast ports will not begin before Spring 2025.
We will begin phasing in checks and controls for non-qualifying goods moving from the island of Ireland, while ensuring that Qualifying Northern Ireland Goods continue to have unfettered access to the GB market, whether those goods are moving directly from Northern Ireland to Great Britain or moving to Great Britain from Northern Ireland via Ireland.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what support they are providing to small and medium-sized enterprises to help them adapt to new import and export regulations.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government published the final Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) on 29 August 2023. It outlines new policies and processes that importers, the border industry and wider stakeholders including EU exporters will need to go through in order to import goods. We are implementing the BTOM in stages throughout 2024 to help industry get accustomed to the changes.
We have worked extensively with small and medium enterprises to help us define and help them adapt to new controls and requirements. Since publishing the final BTOM, Defra’s ongoing engagement has included regularly contacting 30,000 importers with up-to-date information, delivering over 50 webinars to thousands of businesses, providing bespoke training and working with HMRC to issue communication to 150,000 businesses in the UK.
The risk-based model outlined in the BTOM supports businesses of all sizes by minimising costs and burdens for traders and consumers. For example, low-risk products of animal origin will not require an Export Health Certificate or routine border checks and medium risk goods will undergo reduced intervention at the border. We are also piloting new Trusted Trader schemes that will support groupage loads, which is how SMEs often transport their goods.
All businesses will benefit from using the Single Trade Window, saving time and cost for traders. When fully operational, it will make better use of data and remove duplication to make it easier to trade internationally. This can also limit the requirement to use intermediaries and helps to support small businesses through the user interface on the platform. As the Single Trade Window develops, more information will be provided as to how SMEs can be involved and utilise the service.
The Department for Business and Trade supports small and medium enterprises with national programmes such as the Growth Hub network and through schemes such as Help to Grow. The new Help to Grow Campaign includes a dedicated website, acting as a resourcing hub for business support and advice, as well as SME leadership training schemes, Help to Grow Management and Help to Grow: Management Essentials. UK businesses can access DBT’s wealth of export support via Great.gov.uk. This comprises a digital self-serve offer and our wider network of support including trade advisers, Export Champions, the Export Academy, our International Markets network and UK Export Finance.
Furthermore, since its launch in October 2021, to February 2024, the Export Support Service (ESS) Export Digital Enquiry Service has supported over 16,800 enquiries. The ESS International Markets (IM) service has been live in all nine HMTC regions since April 2022 and has received 23,500 market enquiries from 10,700 businesses (up to February 2024).
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ensure that the introduction of import controls does not result in lengthy administrative processes for businesses.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) has been designed with traders and consumers at the forefront. Our global risk-based approach harnesses data and technology to help reduce administrative burden for businesses. Further, most fruit and vegetables are currently treated as low risk and will not require any additional paperwork or checks. A limited number of meat and dairy products have been categorised as medium-risk. For these, simplified and streamlined certification is available.
Through the BTOM, we are piloting world-first Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Trusted Trader schemes. These will allow businesses, including some SMEs, to utilise their own processes to provide us with the assurance normally achieved through border controls, reducing administrative burden, time and costs. Further pilots that allow some traders to be approved to carry out their own checks at point of destination are now being rolled out.
Central to our support for businesses is our commitment to deliver a Single Trade Window (STW) with a further milestone this autumn. When fully operational, the STW will provide one digital gateway for users, where they can provide all the data once that is needed to fulfil their border obligations.
We continue to explore new ways to harness technology and streamline trade. Through the Ecosystem of Trust pilots, which developed theoretical models for ‘frictionless’ trade, the government partnered with industry to test new approaches to the use of technology and data at the border. These new approaches are now being taken forward via what we are calling “Border Trade Demonstrators” - aimed at improving border processes through better information sharing and improved governance.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ensure that trade relations with EU member states are not disrupted as a result of new import controls.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government has undertaken extensive engagement with EU Member States to reduce any risk of disruption to trade as a result of the new requirements. This included Ministerial engagement in the joint UK / EU Domestic Advisory Group session at the start of January 2024, enabling EU trade associations to engage directly on their outstanding queries ahead of the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) implementation.
We continue with official level engagement with trading partners across the EU, including official visits to Belgium (by myself), the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Poland and Germany in 2023 and 2024. The Chief Veterinary Officer has also engaged with counterparts across the EU in order to resolve issues such as ensuring availability of translated Export Health Certificates.
Prior to the second BTOM milestone of 30 April 2024, officials worked with EU-based businesses to conduct robust operational testing. We have and will continue to work with the European Commission, individual EU Member States and trade bodies through established fora, webinars, business-to-government and commodity-specific sessions. We are always keen to seek feedback to address any concerns.
Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many recorded incidents of disease were connected to imports from the EU of (a) gypsophila, (b) solidago, (c) orchids, (d) dianthus and (e) chrysanthemum between 2020 and 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
During 2020 – 2023 there were no findings of disease on cut flowers of the stated genera from the EU. Please note that import physical checks on cut flowers from the EU were not required during this time.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of consignments containing only medium or low-risk goods which were required to pay the Common User Charge entering the UK from the EU were subject to a physical inspection under the Border Target Operating Model between 30 April and 5 May 2024.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Our checks are intelligence-led and based on biosecurity risk. It would be inappropriate for us to set out operational details like the exact inspection details from 30 April. Traders should continue to follow the published guidance which sets out BTOM inspection rates.
DEFRA will gradually increase changes in controlled stages to balance biosecurity risk and maintain trade flows whilst minimising disruption at the border.
This will allow the level of goods inspected at the border to be operationally manageable over the introductory stages.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of consignments containing high-risk goods which were required to pay the Common User Charge entering the UK from the EU were subject to a physical inspection under the Border Target Operating Model between 30 April and 5 May 2024.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Our checks are intelligence-led and based on biosecurity risk. It would be inappropriate for us to set out operational details like the exact inspection details from 30 April. Traders should continue to follow the published guidance which sets out BTOM inspection rates.
DEFRA will gradually increase changes in controlled stages to balance biosecurity risk and maintain trade flows whilst minimising disruption at the border.
This will allow the level of goods inspected at the border to be operationally manageable over the introductory stages.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of inspection fees on food from (a) Eastern Europe and (b) other countries under the Border Target Operating Model on the cost of food.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Our analysis has shown a minimal impact on food prices and consumers. Our new risk-based model has been designed to minimise costs for traders and consumers. Government analysis estimates the cost of the new model to be £330m per annum overall, across all EU imports. Traders will save around £520m per annum versus the model originally proposed, while the inflationary impacts on food for consumers will be, at most, less than 0.2 percentage points over a 3-year period.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many staff will be assigned to (a) monitor and enforce the restrictions introduced under the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) and (b) carry out the administration of the BTOM, expressed as (i) full-time equivalent numbers and (ii) headcount.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Monitoring and enforcing the border controls introduced under the BTOM is undertaken collaboratively on a site by site basis at each point of entry between Defra, Port Health Authorities (part of local authorities), the Animal and Plant Health Agency, Border Force and HMRC, and the Port Operators.
The department considers that this information is operationally - and in the case of Port Operators commercially - sensitive and should be withheld.