Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will list the types of kosher food that currently cannot be sent from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

The vast majority of Kosher foods, including Products of Animal Origin (POAO), can currently move from Great Britain (GB) to Northern Ireland (NI). A small proportion of POAO commodities are classed by the EU as ‘Prohibited and Restricted’ (P&R), which ordinarily would prevent them from moving into the EU or NI from a third country. At present, these POAO P&R goods are still able to move from GB to NI by virtue of the ‘standstill period’, which has preserved existing grace periods for GB-NI trade while we work with the EU on a more sustainable solution. This includes the Kosher commodities that fall into a P&R category.

However, POAO (including Kosher) commodities moving from GB to NI must be accompanied by an Export Health Certificate, and also meet further regulatory conditions. The certification process is complicated and time consuming, which has rendered the supply of Kosher commodities to the small NI Jewish community uneconomical for most suppliers. The community can therefore technically access Kosher goods, but in practice they are still unable to do so by virtue of how the NI Protocol works.

This is not sustainable, and it is an example of the bottom line that the Protocol is not working. We are proposing a common-sense solution: goods going to the EU should go through regulatory checks and customs formalities, and those staying in the United Kingdom should not. That means no checks or documentation for goods moving from GB to NI and staying there, such as Kosher foods for the NI Jewish community.