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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the possibility of a sanitary and phytosanitary agreement to overcome regulatory barriers to the transportation of animals for conservation breeding programs.

The sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) chapter of the United Kingdom-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement puts in place a framework that allows the United Kingdom and the EU to take informed decisions to reduce their respective SPS controls, with a commitment to avoid unnecessary barriers. It is in both the United Kingdom’s and the EU's interests to use this framework to reduce or streamline SPS checks where possible, ensuring that they are proportionate to the biosecurity risks.

The EU's Official Control Regulations require conservation breeding animals are imported into the EU via a suitable Border Control Post (BCP), which currently prevents movements by sea across the short straits, where no BCP is present. As conservation animals are largely non-harmonised (have individual health requirements depending on the country), this presents additional complexities, with individual health certificates required for each EU member state. Defra is exploring specific options with delivery partners to try to overcome some of these burdens.