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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the capacity of the veterinary industry to deal with increased demand for Export Health Certificates in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

We recognise there will be an increased demand for Export Health Certificates (EHCs) in the event the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

Our aim has been to support the market in meeting likely demand by increasing the number of trained Official Veterinarians (OVs) by providing free certification training.

The number of trained OVs has increased from around 600 in February 2019 to more than 1000 currently, there are around 250 who have registered but not yet completed this training. We have been contacting this group, encouraging them to complete the training as soon as possible.

In Great Britain, OVs operate in the private sector and over time we would expect the market to match supply and demand. Understanding what this means for certifying capacity is difficult as we cannot know how many hours a week these OVs will spend on certifying exports and to what extent their availability will respond to price incentives.

To support Local Authority Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) and Official Veterinarians, we have created a Certification Support Officer (CSO) role and funded training. CSOs will handle a number of preparatory and administrative aspects of EHCs (checking documents, identifying products or sealing containers), freeing up EHO or OV time and capacity to provide the final assurance required. To date, in GB, we have 70 authorised CSOs.

EHCs for fish and fish products are primarily certified by Local Authority EHOs and OVs mainly certify EHCs for Animals and Products of Animal Origin (POAO).