Concerns Over Post-Brexit Border Checks and Illegal Meat Influx
Efforts to prevent potentially disease-ridden meat from entering the UK are being compromised by post-Brexit border checks, according to a senior health official.
Lucy Manzano, head of the Dover Port Health Authority, has raised concerns that illegal meat, which has not undergone proper health checks, is now available on “most high streets” in the UK. Recent outbreaks of deadly animal diseases in Europe have heightened worries among health authorities, Whitehall officials, and the farming industry about the risks posed to the UK.
Despite the government’s assurances that the new post-Brexit border checks, implemented in April last year, are effective in keeping the UK disease-free, there are significant issues with the system. Under the current arrangement, checks on commercial vehicles do not occur at Dover itself. Instead, drivers are directed to a border control post 22 miles (35km) away in Sevington. Critics argue that many lorries are failing to show up for these checks due to a lack of enforcement.
In response to these concerns, Parliament’s Environment Select Committee has launched an inquiry to assess the effectiveness of the system. Manzano informed MPs on the committee that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has been overstating the robustness of the controls in place. She stated, “Defra have continually stated that there are robust controls in place. There are not. They don’t exist.”
Manzano also highlighted the department’s failure to provide clear information on how food would be controlled from the point of arrival to the inspection facility 22 miles away. She presented evidence to the government demonstrating that the current system intended to safeguard the country from biosecurity threats is not functioning as intended.
Defra recently declined to respond to a Freedom of Information request from the BBC’s Countryfile programme, which sought information on the number of vehicles failing to attend checks at Sevington.
Original story by BBC News