Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what criteria they use to assess the effectiveness of the delivery of the Border Target Operating Model.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Border Target Operating Model was introduced in 2024 to safeguard biosecurity, minimise risks to public health, animal health, the environment and protect the United Kingdom’s reputation as a responsible international trading nation. It strikes an appropriate balance between supporting business, by avoiding unnecessary regulatory burdens in the process of moving goods into Great Britain, while focussing controls on consignments proven to cause the most significant biosecurity risk.
Defra continues to monitor the effectiveness and impact of the controls and engages regularly with border stakeholders to reflect.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to engage with the logistics sector to develop criteria to assess the effectiveness of the delivery of the Border Target Operating Model.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The model was developed following extensive engagement with businesses (including the logistics sector) across the UK, points of entry, enforcement agencies and with the Scottish and Welsh Devolved Governments.
Defra continues to have regular engagement with border stakeholders to discuss and review the BTOM.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to publish a timetable for scaling up physical checks to achieve the full physical checking regime under the Border Target Operating Model.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government will provide an update in Summer 2025 on the implementation timelines for further controls on EU goods arriving in GB from Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Importers should continue to follow the guidance available on GOV.UK for the latest information.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the UK’s readiness for implementing under the Border Target Operating Model (1) the reclassification of fruit and vegetables from 1 July, and (2) the introduction of checks on EU goods arriving from the Republic of Ireland via the West Coast ports.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
GB plant health services have increased the number of plant health inspection staff to service the demand for import checks in England and Wales of EU plants and plant products. Inspector levels are being monitored to ensure these meet demand and deliver checks in line with the set Service Level Agreement (SLA) and ensure minimal trade disruption. BCPs are designed to handle high volumes of imported SPS goods with inspectors working shifts to carry out reliable checks which minimise friction on traffic flow. Checks at BCPs are handled by trained staff ensuring inspections are undertaken safely and efficiently. The Government will provide an update in Summer 2025 on the implementation timelines for further controls on EU goods arriving in GB from Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of shipments were checked under the Border Target Operating Model in (1) January, (2) February, (3) March, and (4) April, 2025.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
HMRC provides drivers with the Inspection Location Service (ILS), which allows drivers access to identify whether their consignments have been selected for an inspection. The portal is linked to the Goods Movement Vehicle Service (GMVS) whereby a driver can enter their Goods Movement Reference (GMR) and they will be shown the inspection status for their consignment. If the driver does not use GMVS, Imports of Products, Animals, Food and Feed System (IPAFFS) will provide an initial risk assessment telling the importer/agent if their consignment needs SPS checks when they submit their import notification. If the consignment does need checks, the importer/agent and haulier will also receive a text and email message 2 hours before the drivers estimated time of arrival in GB. The message will conform what the driver needs to do. Additionally, the notifier can check their IPAFFS dashboard for updates on whether their consignment will be checked.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will bring forward legislative proposals to require imports of (1) meat, (2) dairy, and (3) eggs, to meet UK animal welfare standards.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government shares the public’s high regard for the UK’s environmental protections, food standards and animal welfare. We will promote robust standards nationally and internationally and will always consider whether overseas produce has an unfair advantage.
All agri-food products must comply with our import requirements in order to be placed on the UK market. This includes ensuring imported meat products have been slaughtered to animal welfare standards equivalent to our domestic standards.
The Government recognises farmers’ concerns about imports produced using methods not permitted in the UK. We have been clear that we will use our Trade Strategy to support economic growth and promote the highest standards of food production.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government when the communique for the Inter-Ministerial Group for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs held on 27 January will be published on Gov.uk.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The communique was published on 26 February 2025 and can be accessed here.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how the Circular Economy Taskforce will engage with ministers and the healthcare sector to coordinate work to develop a circular health economy.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is committed to transitioning to a circular economy. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has convened the Circular Economy Taskforce to help us develop a Circular Economy Strategy for England, which will be supported by with a series of roadmaps detailing the interventions that the government and others will make on a sector-by-sector basis.
This is a cross-government agenda and together we are considering the evidence for interventions right across the economy. We are exploring the circularity impacts of a wide range of levers, including in the health sector, as we develop our strategy.
Furthermore, the Department of Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) Design for Life programme is dedicated to the delivery of a circular economy for medical devices, through greater reuse, remanufacture, and recycling. DHSC published the Design for Life Roadmap in October 2024, which sets out the plan to achieve this vision and transition away from all avoidable single-use medical technology products by 2045.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment was made of the impact of the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024 in the development of the illustrative base fees for the extended producer responsibility for packaging.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The impact assessment for the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024 is published here: The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024
The development of the illustrative base fees for the extended producer responsibility for packaging are for the Scheme Administrator to set each year with engagement from industry.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they intend to engage with industry in relation to the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024 as part of the development of illustrative base fees; and what plans they have to publish the methodology used to develop the most recent illustrative fees.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Under the new Government, Defra has engaged with industry to ensure that the calculation of local authority costs to manage household packaging waste is as accurate as possible. This engagement continues and underpins further development of illustrative Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR) base fees to ensure robust quality assurance of the modelling.
We included a summary of the methodology to calculate pEPR fees as part of the two publications of pEPR illustrative base fees, in August and September 2024. As part of our current engagement with industry we are sharing further details on our methodology and will continue ensuring that the information is shared more widely.