Committee publication · Correspondence · 18 June 2025
Correspondence from the Minister for Biosecurity regarding biosecurity at the border, dated 6 June 2025
From: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Inquiry: Animal and plant health
Summary
Baroness Hayman responds to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee's supplementary questions on biosecurity at the border, addressing foot and mouth disease (FMD) control gaps, animal product smuggling prevention, and enforcement operations at Dover. She confirms three confirmed auto-cleared FMD consignments but states a reliable total figure is impossible to determine due to IPAFFS data issues. She outlines contingency planning exercises, communications campaigns against illegal imports, and funding arrangements for border enforcement.
Key findings
- Only three FMD consignments definitively confirmed as auto-cleared between 10–16 January 2025; a complete reliable figure cannot be produced due to IPAFFS notification failures where importers failed to cancel pre-ban bookings.
- Of 55 Exercise Blackthorn recommendations, 21 have been fully implemented, 22 superseded and closed, and 12 remain in progress; Exercise Aspen scheduled for 2025/26 to test FMD outbreak response.
- Social media campaign for animal product import ban generated over one million impressions by 30 April 2025; Defra met with ports, airports and travel operators on 3 June 2025 to improve in-venue communications.
- FMD restrictions on Hungary, Slovakia and Austria prevented auto-clearance by disabling the IPAFFS auto-clear facility on the day restrictions were imposed.
- Dover PHA offered £3.1 million for 2025/26 to support Border Force with detection of illegal animal products; seizure powers under 2011 Regulations are not limited to official veterinarians.
Tone
ProceduralTopics
Key actors
Baroness Hayman of Ullock, Alistair Carmichael, Chief Veterinary Officer, Defra, APHA, Border Force, Port Health Authorities, Dover PHA
Notable line
“… it is not possible to produce a reliable figure to answer your question”
Key Quotes
“… it is not possible to produce a reliable figure to answer your question. For example, it is impossible to determine whether some apparent auto-clears were in fact goods pre-notified before 10 January 2025 and not dispatched due to our import ban.”
“… we remain confident that the overall system of controls provided the necessary FMD risk mitigations.”
“… the thirty-four remaining recommendations: • Twenty-two recommendations have been superseded and closed. • Twelve recommendations remain in progress, three of which have been merged with a more recent lesson identified from Exercise London Plane.”
“Social media evaluation on 30 April 2025 indicates that our 11 April and 17 April posts generated over one million impressions across all platforms, demonstrating significant reach for our key messages.”
“Border Force can and does seize illegal imports of POAO without any veterinary input. We consider that environmental health officers also have an appropriate level of technical ability to undertake these checks.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗