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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the process will be for importers to derogate the 24-hour notification process for medium-risk goods to four hours under the Border Target Operating Model.

The requirement for IPAFFS (Import of products, animals, food and feed system) prenotifications to be submitted one working day ahead of an animal product consignment’s arrival in GB is an existing requirement for goods from the EU, excluding goods from the island of Ireland. The requirement will remain as is from 31 January for those EU goods it currently applies to, and will be introduced for EU and non-qualifying Northern Ireland goods from the island of Ireland. The way in which this requirement will be enforced will also remain unchanged from now in the January-April period. This aligns with our wider approach to implementation. From the point that controls at the border are introduced, importers will be able to contact Port Health Authorities (PHAs) to request a derogation to reduce the pre-notification window to a minimum of four hours. It may be possible to negotiate a global derogation for certain routes with the PHA, benefiting regular shipments on these paths. However, this would need to be based on agreement with the relevant PHA.