Portsmouth Port: Recruitment

(asked on 2nd December 2020) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress he has made on recruiting staff to support the processing of livestock at the port of Portsmouth following the end of the transition period.


Answered by
Victoria Prentis Portrait
Victoria Prentis
Attorney General
This question was answered on 11th December 2020

Exports of livestock to the EU will require an Export Health Certificate (EHC), certified by a suitably qualified Official Veterinarian (OV), following the end of the transition period. Checks on EHCs will take place at the Border Control Post (BCP) of arrival in the EU, as opposed to the port of departure in Great Britain (GB). Generally, livestock animals already require a form of veterinary certification to move between GB and the EU. The training required for vets to certify ungulate exports has been made available free of charge by the Government and we expect sufficient resource will be available as a result. There are currently approximately 700 OVs authorised to certify ungulate exports across GB.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) already carry out controls on live animal imports. From 1 January they will continue to carry these out at destination, meaning that there will be no controls on imported live animals at ports, including Portsmouth. The APHA will ensure that the necessary live animal inspection resources are in place in time for July 2021, when all live animals imports will need to enter GB via an established point of entry with an appropriate Border Control Post (BCP).

Reticulating Splines