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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many hours the Automatic Licence Verification System at the Sevington Border Control Point has been out of operation for since 30 April 2024.

A power outage at a privately owned data centre that Defra uses affected several Defra digital services last weekend. One of the services impacted was the Automatic Licence Verification System, which is used to validate and exchange information with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

This service was not available between 07:46 11 May and 20:50 14 May. This amounts to 85 hours and 4 minutes. Business Continuity Plans were implemented as soon as the disruption to the service was identified.

There have been no significant delays to border checks and we continue to protect our high standards of biosecurity in the UK through effective monitoring across all imports.

We have contingency arrangements in place for clearance of affected vehicles and consignments at the border, working alongside HMRC and Border Force.