The government rejected reports that planned health and safety checks on EU imports might not be ‘turned on’ at the end of the month, due to the risk of “significant disruption” at the border.

The second phase of the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) was due to begin 30 April, with the introduction of checks on medium- and high-risk sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) goods. 

The FT said that: “the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has outlined a plan to avoid queues of lorries at ports, revealing that if the new border measures were implemented as planned big delays could follow.”

The paper cited citing a presentation shown to Port Health Authorities.

The plan allegedly involves a “phased implementation” approach, which would see the rate of checks initially “set to zero for all commodity groups”, before being “progressively turned on”.

Government denials

In a blog post today (19 April), the government denied the FT’s reporting, saying that the 30 April checks would be commencing as planned and that the newspaper’s story was “misleading”.

A government spokesman said:

“As we have always said, the goods posing the highest biosecurity risk are being prioritised as we build up to full check rates and high levels of compliance.

“Taking a pragmatic approach to introducing our new border checks minimises disruption, protects our biosecurity and benefits everyone – especially traders.”

According to the government, high-risk goods will be the “priority” for physical checks, and Port Health Authorities “will be conducting documentary checks on consignments of all risk levels and will contact traders where they have concerns.”

“Checks will be scaled up to full check levels in a sensible and controlled way.”

If confirmed, this would the sixth time that the BTOM changes have been delayed.

Previous measures

The FT had previously reported that checks could be “waived” if the UK’s ports face the threat of being overwhelmed, with goods being “cleared for entry” even if checks had not been undertaken.

The second phase was widely considered to be the most disruptive stage of BTOM, with businesses expressing uncertainty towards the new rules.

The first phase of BTOM saw the introduction of rules that required health certificates for medium-risk category products imported from the EU, which included animal products, plants, plant products and high-risk food products of non-animal origin. These rules came into effect 30 January.

The Joint Customs Consultative Committee (JCCC) had previously issued another reminder about the new border checks on food and drink products, urging businesses to make sure they are prepared ahead of the deadline.