The UK’s main post-Brexit border control facility is allowing potentially risky animal and plant products to enter the UK without adequate checks, customs agents have warned.
Sevington, the government-established post for inspecting UK imports post-Brexit, has faced communication issues and delays while attempting to implement a controls regime that was delayed five times before finally being enforced in April, sources revealed.
Previously, goods entering the UK from outside the EU underwent rigorous physical or documentary inspections. Now, they are entering with weaker checks or none at all, according to three agents who spoke to the Financial Times.
One agent, requesting anonymity, reported that goods from Turkey were being cleared through Sevington without proper checks. When the agent sought permission to import honey from Macedonia, he received a quick approval: “Yes, no problem.”
Another official mentioned that six consignments of frozen fish had been cleared through Sevington without their Common Health Entry Documents (CHEDs) being validated weeks later. “I don’t think that [the inspection] system is turned on, otherwise the system would chuck it back,” he said, noting that fish consignments transiting through France from China, Korea, and Japan had been cleared through Sevington.
Earlier this year, the Financial Times reported that the government had quietly implemented a contingency clearance process to reduce lorry queues at British ports. The measure, known as the timed-out decision contingency feature (Todcof), allows goods to be automatically cleared after two hours, regardless of whether checks have been conducted.
Documents indicated that before the post-Brexit inspection rules took effect in April, the rate of checks was set to their lowest levels or turned off entirely to avoid delays.
In response to concerns about the border system’s readiness, the government stated it had always intended to “phase in” checks.
Before leaving the EU in January 2020, the UK relied on the bloc to conduct controls on goods entering Europe. The UK conducted its own checks on goods arriving from non-EU countries.
Under the current system, goods entering the UK from both inside and outside Europe can be sent for checks at Sevington, located 22 miles inland from the port of Dover.
The fish-importing agent added that some clients, including hauliers, supermarkets, and food producers, requested their products be routed through different border control posts due to mistrust in Sevington’s capabilities.
Nigel Hughes, an agent at EuroLink customs clearance company, reported that one client had been invoiced for checks at the facility without proof that they had been conducted. Another client importing plants and trees from the Netherlands said its lorry drivers had to spend the night at Sevington because no one was available to perform checks.
“The main problem that we have with Sevington is the lack of communication,” Hughes stated. “We’ve got no-one to speak to. We have mobile phone numbers which don’t answer the phone. We have emails, which are answered very slowly.”
Customs and trade experts are calling for a review of the border rules and associated charges, arguing that they harm businesses in the UK and on the continent while endangering biosecurity.
“We need the next UK government to fast-track a veterinary agreement with the EU to do away with unnecessary SPS [sanitary and phytosanitary controls] checks that cripple businesses, are difficult to enforce, and apparently do very little to improve food, feed, and plant safety and security,” said Arne Mielken, SPS controls expert and managing director of Customs Manager consultancy.
The government declined to comment on the issue due to the ongoing general election.
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