Efforts to maintain doubtlessly disease-ridden meat out of the UK are being undermined by post-Brexit border checks, a senior well being official has stated.
The boss of the Dover Port Health Authority stated unlawful meat, which has not been by correct well being checks, was now accessible on “most High Streets” within the UK.
European outbreaks of lethal animal ailments in latest months have left well being authorities, Whitehall officers and plenty of within the farming trade anxious concerning the risk they pose to the UK.
But the federal government has beforehand insisted the brand new system of post-Brexit border checks that got here into impact in April final yr is able to conserving the UK disease-free.
Under the post-Brexit system, checks on industrial autos don’t happen at Dover itself.
Instead, drivers are ordered to journey 22 miles (35km) away to a border management publish at Sevington.
But critics have warned that many lorries are merely failing to show up for the checks, as a result of a scarcity of enforcement.
Parliament’s Environment Select Committee has now launched an inquiry into whether or not the system is working.
Lucy Manzano, head of the Dover Port Health Authority, advised MPs on the committee that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) had been overstating the effectiveness of the system.
She stated: “Defra have continually stated that there are robust controls in place. There are not. They don’t exist.”
She added that the division had failed to supply “any confirmation of how food would be controlled at the point it arrives, or more importantly, between the point it arrives and the inspection facility that is accessed 22 miles across”.
Ms Manzano stated she had introduced proof to the federal government “to demonstrate that the system brought in place to safeguard this country from a biosecurity point of view… is not working”.
Defra refused to reply a latest Freedom of Information request from the BBC’s Countryfile programme, asking what number of autos have been failing to show up for checks at Sevington.
Ms Manzano claimed unlawful meat has now develop into way more commonplace in excessive road retailers – and that it’s changing into more and more troublesome for shoppers to identify of the product they’re shopping for has gone by correct well being checks.
It is known that the view inside Defra is that the post-Brexit checks are working as they need to.
Earlier this week figures confirmed that just about 100 tonnes of unlawful meat was seized on the Port of Dover final yr.
Defra stated the federal government “will never waver in its duty to protect the UK’s biosecurity” and insisted it was working successfully with enforcement companies.
A BBC News investigation final yr discovered that unprecedented ranges of seizures had sparked fears of extra organised felony exercise.
An identical well being examine facility to the one at Sevington does exist on web site at Dover, however it’s understood that the federal government selected to not use it due to worries about potential visitors queues forming on the border.
Ms Manzano stated that call was “not based on biosecurity” and added that “the very purpose of import controls is to keep the bad stuff out and contain it at first point of entry”.
Last month the UK authorities launched strict restrictions on the import of German meat, following an outbreak of foot and mouth illness.
But Ms Manzano stated failures within the IT system launched since Brexit meant that merchandise which ought to have been present process checks have been allowed to freely enter the UK for “at least six days”.
When the present system was launched final yr, the federal government additionally gave funding to Dover Port Health Authority to hold out spot checks on smaller autos instantly on the border.
Figures present the overwhelming majority of unlawful meat seized within the UK is caught by these spot checks.
But Ms Manzano stated that funding was as a result of run out in seven weeks and that with out additional authorities money the checks must cease.
Government discussions are ongoing about the way to greatest fund border checks.
It is known the choice to place the checks at Sevington has seemingly had a direct damaging influence on how a lot cash goes to the Dover Port Health Authority.
A Defra spokesperson refused to touch upon ongoing spending selections.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cglydk3d7wko