Agenda item

The Interim Executive Director for Environment to be heard.

The Committee received a verbal update of the Interim Executive Director for Environment concerning an update on Brexit in relation to Port Health. With the introduction of the second phase of the controls on 30^th April 2024, there had been a project of 140,000 consignments. There was an average of 3,000 consignments, which meant projections were currently accurate. This could increase as trade adjusted to the new border control regime. The new staffing resource was in place, with fixed-term contracts to cope with the additional work and extended operational hours. The Service was collecting data to be reviewed at six-months post-implementation, at which point the resourcing requirements would be reviewed. Issues had arisen with recharging for the EU goods on the IT system, and a workaround had to be created in the interim.

A Member enquired if it was known on what the percentage of the recharge would be on imported goods. The response was that this was currently unknown. The border control regime operated on a full-cost recovery basis, and the recharges were based on the cost recovery for the service. It was unknown how this would impact imported products on shelves, however the fees and charges structure was reasonably modest when compared to the other charges imports are subject to, and that these charges had been placed on imports from the Rest of World for many years. The charges were the same for medium risk goods for the EU imports and Rest of World. The primary difference with the new controls was the concept of a low-risk good, which was a surveillance process which cost approximately £10 per consignment.

It was queried why the IT system has caused issues for EU imports if it had previously been used for the Rest of World. The response was that the new system was not able to distinguish easily between low and medium risk imports of food and feed from the EU and they traded on a block basis. There was a 50:50 split between low and medium risk products and some imports straddled both categories depending on their country of origin. Rest of World products and their associated risk were easier to define. Furthermore, there had been issues with the government IT systems which broke a link between the databases.

RESOLVED – That the verbal report be received.