The government’s response to illegal meat smuggling “lacks urgency”, with biosecurity threats at the UK border in need of urgent attention – and before it concludes talks with the EU on a new Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) deal – MPs have warned.
These threats “cannot wait” for negotiations, warned the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee yesterday, after Defra published a response to its damning report, published in September – which warned of “alarming” amounts of potentially unsafe product making its way into the country via porous border controls.
The Committee’s report highlighted the limited powers of UK systems and procedures to halt the large and increasing volumes of meat entering the UK. More than 20 tonnes of illegally imported meat was seized by the Dover Port Health Authority just in September.
But the publication of Defra’s response to the report – which coincided with the first appearance of new Defra secretary Emma Reynolds in front of the Committee yesterday afternoon – had “stopped short” of agreeing to Efra’s recommendation for the creation of a new taskforce to tackle the issue, the Committee said.
While the government had “acknowledged many of the Committee’s concerns about the scale of illegal meat imports to the UK” (and had committed to taking “a more strategic approach and considering forming an inter-ministerial group on the ‘goods border’”), its non-acceptance of a powerful taskforce was slammed by Efra members.
Such a taskforce should include the chief veterinary officer, plus representatives from Defra’s Animal & Plant Health Agency, the Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland, including the National Food Crime Unit and Scottish Food Crime & Incidents Unit, and Border Force, Efra had urged.
Local government representation such as port health authority leaders, the Association of Port Health Authorities, the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and the Local Government Association should also be included, MPs on the Committee had recommended.
Taskforce ‘not appropriate’
However, Defra’s response said it “does not accept that it is currently appropriate to establish a specific taskforce”.
The government department said it would instead focus on “short-term efforts on devising a revised strategic approach to the issue of illegal animal product imports via the Short Straits, working closely with a range of local and national partners, including the Dover Port Health Authority”.
The response inferred that much of the issues portrayed in the Efra report would ultimately be resolved following the conclusion of SPS deal negotiations.
But this meant Defra would be “putting off powers to reduce alarming amounts of illegal imports until 2027 at the earliest”, Efra warned.
Defra’s response was derided as insufficient by the Committee, particularly given what its report had described as a dysfunctional relationship between Defra and DPHA – which was understaffed by a “dedicated but demoralised” and underfunded team.
Efra chair Alistair Carmichael MP described Defra’s current biosecurity position was to “wait and see” what happened with EU SPS negotiations. In response, Defra’s director general for food, biosecurity and trade Emily Miles said the department would look to increase a £3m grant given to the DPHA this year, over the coming months.
However, both Miles and Reynolds admitted to the Committee that they had yet to even visit the port, despite Efra’s concerns around the situation and pledges for high-level Defra engagement with the port authority – leading Carmichael to question their “lack of urgency” on the matter.
Illegal meat smuggling via personal imports – which are subject to a temporary government ban enacted in April due to concerns over foot and mouth outbreaks in the EU earlier this year – were of particular concern to the Committee.
Read more: UK woefully exposed to illegal meat smuggling, damning Efra Committee report warns
Miles stressed that the publication of the ban, via notices on travel company websites and at ports, was currently sufficient, despite concerns from MPs, echoing earlier calls from industry, that more could be done to publicise it.
Carmichael said “the SPS agreement is not going to regulate those who chop up animals and transport them in suitcases – which we witnessed on the Committee’s visit to the Port Health Authority in Dover”.
The government’s approach to threats to the UK’s biosecurity was “to leave the UK sitting in the firing line. Pathogens don’t wait for policy – that’s why urgency in biosecurity matters,” the Lib Dem MP added.
“African swine fever, foot and mouth disease – whatever the next threat to animal health will be – we cannot wait for the UK’s negotiations with the EU to conclude, never mind wait for implementation,” he urged.
“Our report found that there is currently no effective deterrent to meat smuggling and the risks to animal and human health, our food security, farming sector and the economy are significant.”
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