‘What a shambles!’
New post-Brexit border health and safety checks on EU imports have been pushed back once again to avoid what the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) admits is a risk of serious disruption.
A report in the Financial Times informs how, just two weeks before the physical inspections were set to begin, the government said that ‘challenges’ within the process for registering imports of food and animal products may cause the levels of inspections that could overwhelm ports. In a bid to avoid such delays, the government said it would ensure the rate of checks were initially “set to zero for all commodity groups.”
“There is a potential for significant disruption on day one if all commodity codes are turned on at once,” said Defra in a report to port health authorities that was seen by the FT.
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This is the fifth time that the implementation of border controls has been postponed since 2021, due to fears they could cause disruption, and fuel price inflation further. It is unclear how long the border checks will be suspended for.
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