The future of the UK’s post-Brexit border infrastructure was left upended after Defra confirmed a “decommissioning” of the facilities built for the purpose of controls on EU food and drink goods, amid an agreement between London and Brussels to scrap most checks.
As part of the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) deal reached with the EU on 19 May, there will be a substantial decrease in red tape and physical checks on goods at the border.
Secretary of state Steve Reed admitted on Tuesday this would lead to a scaling back or decommissioning of some of the facilities and jobs originally set up to handle the new controls on EU goods introduced post-Brexit.
“Things will change once this deal is implemented,” Reed told the Efra subcommittee, as there will be a “dramatic reduction” in border controls.
“Once the deal is done and the final arrangements are sorted, we’re expecting there will be a scaling back of some checks, so there will be a decommissioning of some facilities,” added Defra’s director general for food, biosecurity and trade Emily Miles.
“We need to work through where, and the consequences of having fewer checks on food coming in,” Miles said.
The government has not said which border control posts would fall under this review.
Obsolete infrastructure
But the issue of major infrastructure projects designed to process checks on EU animal and plant goods that ended up becoming obsolete is not new.
The Conservative government commissioned and partially funded new BCPs across the country ahead of Britain officially leaving the bloc in 2021, but it only rolled out said checks last year after a series of delays – meaning many of those facilities sat idle for years, with industry often dubbing them ‘white elephants’.
The head of Portsmouth City Council, councillor Steve Pitt, said the local authority “will be looking for compensation from government to recover the shortfall” of its brand new 8,000 sq metre border site, which has largely been underused since it began operating.
“As a local authority-owned port, £6m of the council’s budget has been spent building this highly specialist, bespoke facility. It was hoped that we could recoup costs through charging for goods to be inspected, however if the BCP is no longer in use we will be looking for compensation from government to recover the shortfall”, Pitt said in a statement after the UK-EU deal announcement.
“We have repeatedly asked for a clear direction on the future of the border control posts (BCPs) – ours is a significant piece of infrastructure that takes up two acres of operational land and has meant a loss of commercial opportunity for the port.”
The council was also considering demolishing a “specialist facility that cost over £23m to build and is less than three years old if there isn’t a need for inspections to take place”, he added.
Read more: Confusion reigns over future of fruit & veg border checks following EU deal
The British Ports Association (BPA), which represents over 400 UK ports, is also now calling on the government to repay the private investments made to comply with new border control regulations.
“This agreement means many new border control posts that were built at a cost of over £120m to industry to manage checks that never fully materialised are now likely to become obsolete,” said BPA chief Richard Ballantyne.
”Government should cover the full costs of these white elephants and put this episode behind us.”
Pitt also noted several jobs were now on the line with the need for people to run checks on EU goods significantly reduced.
“As a council-owned facility, we are also obviously concerned about our staff in port health and will ensure all changes take place in consultation with them as we get further clarity from government.”
Unnecessary posts
The fresh produce industry, which independently funded similar infrastructure at the request of government to manage border inspections for highly perishable food post-Brexit, has also echoed calls for compensation for the “underutilised” control points.
“Ultimately these will also appear to become unnecessary, so government should fully compensate the wider industry for their proactive approach at the government’s request,” said Nigel Jenney, CEO of trade body Fresh Produce Consortium.
A government spokesperson told The Grocer: “This government committed in its manifesto to negotiate an agreement to prevent unnecessary checks, remove red tape for businesses and help tackle the cost of food, which is what we have delivered on.”
There are also concerns of what this “scaling back” of inspection operations will mean amid growing numbers of illegal meat imports entering the UK from the Continent.
Read more: Food and drink reacts as border checks on EU exports scrapped
Dover Port Health Authority has raised the alarm several times over the past year in regards to insufficient funding from central government for the local teams in charge of intercepting these illegal goods.
Miles told the Efra committee that “what we mustn’t do is decrease the ability to look at illegal imports”.
Reed added that, as part of the new deal, the UK “will have access to the EU’s systems and databases”, which will help tackle the “biosecurity risks of plant health or animal health diseases coming into the country”, such as the highly contagious African swine fever and foot and mouth disease.
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