Food and Livestock: Ashford (Kent)
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many vehicles containing (a) live animals and (b) food products failed to attend a further inspection at Sevington in the last 12 months.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Due to the intelligence led and dynamic nature of our biosecurity controls, and to ensure operations are not impacted, we are unable to share this data.
The risk of legitimate commercial loads not attending Sevington is mitigated by robust, data-backed enforcement options. Consignments called to Sevington for an inspection will have completed the necessary customs declarations and pre-notifications. These goods will not be legally cleared for sale or use within the UK until they have attended and been cleared at the Border Control Post (BCP).
Where the BCP has concerns, for example due to non-attendance, there are existing robust provisions for contacting the person responsible for the load. These provisions are enforceable through the data collected in customs declarations and pre-notification.
Meanwhile, vehicles suspected to be carrying illegal imports (e.g. those for which customs declarations and pre-notification have not been made or suspected to have been made in bad faith) will continue to be stopped and dealt with by Border Force at the point of entry to the UK, not sent to the BCP.
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