Efforts to maintain doubtlessly disease-ridden meat out of the UK are being undermined by post-Brexit border checks, a senior well being official has mentioned.
The boss of the Dover Port Well being Authority mentioned unlawful meat, which has not been by correct well being checks, was now obtainable on “most Excessive Streets” within the UK.
European outbreaks of lethal animal ailments in latest months have left well being authorities, Whitehall officers and lots of within the farming business fearful concerning the menace they pose to the UK.
However the authorities has beforehand insisted the brand new system of post-Brexit border checks that got here into impact in April final yr is able to retaining the UK disease-free.
Below the post-Brexit system, checks on business autos don’t happen at Dover itself.
As an alternative, drivers are ordered to journey 22 miles (35km) away to a border management publish at Sevington.
However critics have warned that many lorries are merely failing to show up for the checks, resulting from a scarcity of enforcement.
Parliament’s Surroundings Choose Committee has now launched an inquiry into whether or not the system is working.
Lucy Manzano, head of the Dover Port Well being Authority, informed MPs on the committee that the Division for Surroundings, Meals and Rural Affairs (Defra) had been overstating the effectiveness of the system.
She mentioned: “Defra have regularly said that there are strong controls in place. There aren’t. They do not exist.”
She added that the division had failed to offer “any affirmation of how meals could be managed on the level it arrives, or extra importantly, between the purpose it arrives and the inspection facility that’s accessed 22 miles throughout”.
Ms Manzano mentioned she had introduced proof to the federal government “to reveal that the system introduced in place to safeguard this nation from a biosecurity viewpoint… just isn’t working”.
Defra refused to reply a latest Freedom of Data request from the PRESSHARK’s Countryfile programme, asking what number of autos have been failing to show up for checks at Sevington.
Ms Manzano claimed unlawful meat has now turn out to be far more commonplace in excessive road outlets – and that it’s changing into more and more tough for shoppers to identify of the product they’re shopping for has gone by correct well being checks.
It’s understood that the view inside Defra is that the post-Brexit checks are working as they need to.
Earlier this week figures confirmed that nearly 100 tonnes of unlawful meat was seized on the Port of Dover final yr.
Defra mentioned the federal government “won’t ever waver in its obligation to guard the UK’s biosecurity” and insisted it was working successfully with enforcement businesses.
A PRESSHARK Information investigation final yr discovered that unprecedented ranges of seizures had sparked fears of extra organised felony exercise.
An identical well being examine facility to the one at Sevington does exist on website at Dover, however it’s understood that the federal government selected to not use it due to worries about potential site visitors queues forming on the border.
Ms Manzano mentioned that call was “not based mostly on biosecurity” and added that “the very objective of import controls is to maintain the dangerous stuff out and comprise it at first level of entry”.
Final month the UK authorities launched strict restrictions on the import of German meat, following an outbreak of foot and mouth illness.
However Ms Manzano mentioned failures within the IT system launched since Brexit meant that merchandise which ought to have been present process checks have been allowed to freely enter the UK for “not less than six days”.
When the present system was launched final yr, the federal government additionally gave funding to Dover Port Well being Authority to hold out spot checks on smaller autos immediately on the border.
Figures present the overwhelming majority of unlawful meat seized within the UK is caught by these spot checks.
However Ms Manzano mentioned that funding was resulting from run out in seven weeks and that with out additional authorities money the checks must cease.
Authorities discussions are ongoing about finest fund border checks.
It’s understood the choice to place the checks at Sevington has seemingly had a direct adverse affect on how a lot cash goes to the Dover Port Well being Authority.
A Defra spokesperson refused to touch upon ongoing spending selections.
