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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which (a) plant and (b) animal diseases are screened for when importing products into the UK.

The UK has a strong, risk-based regulatory regime in place which implements a comprehensive range of the Government's measures across the plant biosecurity continuum (pre-border, at the border, and inland) to minimise biosecurity risks and meet World Trade Organisation standards. Import requirements for Great Britain are in place to guard against a wide range of regulated plant pests and diseases and to detect any new and emerging issues requiring assessment and possible mitigation. These requirements include a prohibition on the highest risk trees and the phytosanitary certification of regulated plants (including trees) which are permitted for import, to provide official confirmation that prescribed conditions have been complied with. Such imports must be pre-notified to the Government and are subject to an official inspection and surveillance programme. Similar arrangements are in place in Northern Ireland, under the Northern Ireland P rotocol.

We constantly review whether further safeguards are needed and have a scientific process to assess the changing threats to plant biosecurity. The UK Plant Health Risk Register contains details of over 1400 plant pests and pathogens, 30% of which can affect trees. Risks are reviewed monthly with Ministers and prioritised for action such as further regulation or increased inspections.

The UK requires competent authorities in EU and non-EU countries to provide health certificates to exporters of animals and animal products to the UK. The health certificates are tailored for the species or type of product imported into the UK and sum up a number of compulsory conditions for animals and products of animal origin to be imported into the UK . The certificates require guarantees of freedom from exotic and notifiable animal diseases in the UK, including Foot and Mouth Disease, Avian Influenza, Newcastle Disease and also all other exotic ¹ and endemic ² diseases of animals.

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¹Exotic disease - not normally present in the UK, such as foot and mouth disease

²Endemic disease - already present in the UK, such as bovine TB

The gov.uk page is the main source of information on notifiable and exotic disease available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/notifiable-diseases-in-animals.