Asked by: Richard Thomson (Scottish National Party - Gordon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to improve (a) awareness of and (b) compliance with upcoming import checks on food products arriving from the EU to Great Britain among food importers in the (i) UK and (ii) EU.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Defra is engaging stakeholders in all SPS sectors within the United Kingdom, across the EU and with global trading partners, to raise awareness of the Border Target Operating Model (TOM). Information will be shared through a series of live and virtual engagement events. Online guidance will be available on GOV.UK.
From 30 April, our approach to compliance and enforcement will balance an expectation that businesses will do their best to comply, with an understanding that there will be a period of adjustment to the new controls. We are working with APHA and PHAs to reach a clear and consistent understanding of how this calibrated approach will be implemented. We will continue to pursue an approach of supporting businesses towards full compliance via guidance and warnings, only escalating to enforcement where necessary.
Asked by: Richard Thomson (Scottish National Party - Gordon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to improve its communications with food importers in the (a) UK and (b) EU on upcoming import checks on food products arriving from the EU.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Defra is engaging stakeholders in all SPS sectors within the United Kingdom, across the EU and with global trading partners, to raise awareness of the Border Target Operating Model (TOM). Information will be shared through a series of live and virtual engagement events and communications detailing actions required as a result of the new changes. Online guidance will be available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Richard Thomson (Scottish National Party - Gordon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of import checks on products arriving from the EU on (a) food prices and (b) consumers.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) will introduce import controls on consignments arriving in GB from the EU. Our analysis indicates that these controls would at most have an impact on inflation of less than 0.2% in total over a 3-year period. We are taking steps to support businesses importing to GB to prepare for BTOM and do not anticipate BTOM will adversely affect supplies, including food supplies, to GB.
Asked by: Richard Thomson (Scottish National Party - Gordon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of import checks on food products arriving from the EU on (a) independent and (b) small and medium-sized (i) sandwich shops, (ii) delicatessens and (iii) grocery wholesale businesses.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Border Target Operating Model provides a proportionate and streamlined import control regime that supports businesses of all sizes while maintaining high levels of biosecurity and public health protection. During the 6-week stakeholder engagement period, the majority of responding businesses identified as small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We have listened to the feedback and we have pushed back the implementation dates for SPS controls giving industry longer to prepare. We have also revised the SPS trusted trader scheme and set out further facilitations for importers using groupage models, all of which will benefit SMEs.
Asked by: Richard Thomson (Scottish National Party - Gordon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that (a) border inspection teams and (b) port authorities are fully-staffed ahead of the implementation of import checks on food products arriving from the EU.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Following the decision to delay implementing new SPS controls on EU-GB imports of animal products, Defra agreed to fund up to 150 staff for Port Health Authorities through the Port Health Transition Fund. This funding was extended, confirming funding for existing staff at PHAs for the financial year 2023/2024, allowing retention of capacity and skills for delivery of the BTOM as well as continuing the ongoing work on managing biosecurity risks, (e.g., African Swine Fever). Following the publication of the final BTOM, we will continue to work with both APHA and PHAs to agree resourcing plans to deliver the proposed controls and develop a clear and consistent understanding across PHAs and APHA as to how the new controls should be implemented.
Asked by: Richard Thomson (Scottish National Party - Gordon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the implementation of import checks on food products arriving from the European Union to Great Britain causes minimal loss of perishable products.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Fruit and vegetable imports have been classified as low-risk meaning they will not require any additional paperwork or checks. Where perishable products will require additional physical checks, the three-month period from 31 January 2024 will allow businesses time to familiarise themselves with the new requirements before full implementation on 30 April 2024. From 30 April, our approach to compliance and enforcement will be carefully calibrated to balance an expectation that businesses will do their best to comply, with an understanding that there will be a period of adjustment. We will continue to pursue an approach of supporting businesses towards full compliance via guidance and warnings and only escalating to enforcement where necessary.
Asked by: Richard Thomson (Scottish National Party - Gordon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has had recent discussions with industry in the (a) UK and (b) EU on the potential impact of import checks on food products arriving from the EU.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Following the launch of the draft Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) in April 2023, the Government ran a 6-week engagement period with affected stakeholders, including businesses in the UK and EU. As part of this, the Government engaged approximately 10,000 participants that registered for Government-led events and received over 200 written responses to an online portal and over 650 detailed responses at focused sessions. The feedback received is reflected in the publication of BTOM, notably the decision to move the introduction of controls by three months to give businesses more time to prepare.
Asked by: Richard Thomson (Scottish National Party - Gordon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of import checks on food products arriving from the EU on Christmas supply chains.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Under the Border Target Operating Model, no new controls will be implemented before 31 January 2024, so new controls will not impact Christmas supply chains in 2023.
Asked by: Richard Thomson (Scottish National Party - Gordon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the availability of fresh food will not be affected by the implementation of import checks on food products arriving from the EU.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Fruit and vegetable imports have been classified as low-risk meaning they will not require any additional paperwork or checks. We do not expect a significant impact on availability. In implementing this new control regime for the first time on EU imports, we will carefully monitor the range of potential risks, including those that may impact food supply-chains. Where possible we will work with importers to try to manage those risks in a structured way, considering whether there are appropriate contingencies which we can deploy if and when required.
The UK Government will also work closely with our key trading partners, to ensure that the capacity and availability of certifiers for Export Health Certificates does not become a barrier to trade.
Asked by: Richard Thomson (Scottish National Party - Gordon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of trends in the number of debt collections undertaken on behalf of Government Departments since 2018.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Overdue debt owed to government rose sharply during the pandemic, reaching £64.5bn in March 2021. It has since fallen to £49.5 billion in March 2022
Broadening governments work with the private sector is essential if we are to support, complement, and extend public sector debt management capabilities, ensuring vital public funds continue to be recovered in a way that’s fair and sustainable.