Dover District Council has accused the Government of taking ‘serious and needless risks’ that could expose the UK to a devastating outbreak of African swine fever with its approach to new border controls.
The council has urged the Government to reverse its decision to slash funding for checks on illegal meat imports at the Port of Dover and to move the Border Control Post for commercial food checks under the Border Target Operating Model from the port 22 miles inland to Sevington.
A total of 3.4 tonnes of illegal meat was seized at Dover last Friday and Saturday, the largest haul this year so far, just days before the implementation of the latest phase of the BTOM.
The seizures came from a number of vehicle inspections completed by Dover Port Health Authority (DPHA) at the port. They included 54 unmarked sheep carcasses from two vehicles from Romania, which had travelled for several days in unhygienic conditions and unsuitable packaging, including incomplete domestic clingfilm, black sacks and duct tape.
The meat had been transported without temperature controls, cross contaminating other food including pig parts, chicken, beef, and cheese items with dripping blood.
To stop the potential spread of disease, the illegal meat was removed from the food supply chain by DPHA at the point of entry at Dover, the council said.
One of the consequences of the BTOM finally getting up and running is that funding for these illegal meat checks at the port under ASF rules – which have resulted more than 85 tonnes of meat being seized so far, much of it pork from ASF-infected regions – is being slashed.
Defra told DPHA in December that it was cutting its budget from £3.2m to £1.2m in 2024/25, starting in April, and then to nothing in 2025/26. DPHA says it needs £4m to perform the work, which has also been extended to Coquelles, in France.
Defra has said DDC could recover some of these funds by charging illegal meat importers, although it has now acknowledged that this will be ‘challenging’. DDC said it does have the provisions to charge importers in this way.
DDC is also concerned that the decision to move commercial food checks from April 30 under the BTOM to Sevington will create ‘an even bigger risk to British biosecurity’.
ASF threat
The council highlighted the importance of its work in seizing illegal imports under ASF prevention measures, as the virus continues to spread in various European countries, including recent outbreaks in Sweden, Italy and Germany. It warned that a failure to fund and maintain the service threatens the UK’s pig herd.
Lucy Manzano, DPHA’s Head of Port Health and Public Protection, said: “These seizures demonstrate just how vital the work is of the Dover Port Health Authority when it comes to protecting British supply chains and biosecurity.
“Despite our limited resources, our inspection teams are fully committed to fighting off the threat of African Swine Fever and other lethal diseases that threaten livestock – seizing over 85 tonnes of illegal meat since the checks were brought in from September 2022.”
“At this crucial time, it is vital that Defra and the Government consider the serious risks to British biosecurity that the single-site at Sevington creates.
“In practice this means that commercial imports of animal products, including high-risk meat and meat products will be able to arrive at Dover from Rest-of-World countries, and leave the point-of-entry and Port Health Authority at Dover, to enter our food chain without checks.
“This is the only border where food that is required to be checked will be able to travel freely and uncontrolled, to self-present at a facility 22 miles away.
“This is an entirely needless risk, when the Government has built a Border Control Post (BCP) in Dover (Bastion) but have decided not to open it, despite it being complete and run to temperature.
“We are again calling for DEFRA to open the purpose built BCP at Dover, Bastion Point, and to provide adequate funding for ASF checks so UK farmers, supply chains and biosecurity are protected.”
Defra response
A few weeks ago, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee published a damning letter to it from Ms Manzano that was described by committee member Labour MP Barry Gardiner as ‘one of the most excoriating letters I’ve ever seen in relation to what a Minister has said and put in writing’.
She claimed a letter sent by Defra Minister Lord Douglas-Miller to EFRA failed to answer the questions posed by the committee and contained many inaccuracies and ‘confused and misleading’ statements about the position at Dover post April 2024.
EFRA then put these questions to Defra, who, through, Lord Douglas-Miller replied in late-April. He claimed that Border Force, not DPHA, was the lead agency for tackling illegal imports and said the £3.66m total funding DPHA received was only ever a ‘temporary financial support package for port health authorities’ in response to delays to the BTOM. He added that this covered wider costs incurred at the port than just those for the ASF work.
He said the £1.2 million of new funding was an ‘initial allocation aiming to cover costs associated with personal imports activity that cannot be covered by cost-recovery’.
He acknowledged for the first time, however, that there ‘may well be challenges (for DPHA) in achieving full cost recovery’, but added that he ‘did not agree that cost recovery will be entirely impossible’.
Virtually all of this contradicted the points made by Ms Manzano. She insisted, for example, that the £3.6m provided for 2023/24 was ‘to complete ASF checks at the Port of Dover only’ and insisted it was ‘misleading’ to claim Border Force is responsible for managing illegal imports. “DPHA are legally responsible for ASF controls and removing illegal EU meat imports,” she said.
She strongly refuted the suggestion that Dover could introduce charging to recover costs, claiming there are no charging provisions for personal import checks under ASF controls.
Lord-Douglas Miller did say, however, that Defra was ‘open to discussing funding requirements with Dover District Council’ and had asked them to provide a proposal to confirm what future funding they require.
But in the absence of any further real clarity, NPA chief policy adviser Charlie Dewhirst said: “The situation is concerning because, as of the end of April, there is still no clear indication of how Defra intends to tackle the problem of illegal meat imports, which, of course, pose a huge threat to the UK pig industry.”