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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to remove the ban on the import of soil in potted plants from garden centres in Great Britain to garden centres in Northern Ireland, as required by the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland.

Now that the transition period has come to an end, GB is treated as a third country by the EU, which means that the movements of plants and plant products from GB to the EU and NI are subject to the EU's plant health import requirements, including the restrictions on soil and growing media. The new sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) requirements on goods moving from GB to NI were put in place by the UK Government as part of the UK's approach to the Northern Ireland Protocol, and will uphold the longstanding status of the island of Ireland as a single epidemiological unit.

It is permissible to move plants (potted or otherwise) with growing media attached to them from GB to the EU and NI, as long as that growing media meets the EU's import requirements. Defra has been working closely with trade associations to develop guidance on growing media and how traders can fulfil the EU's requirements. This guidance has been published on the Plant Health Portal.

Provided that plants and growing media meet the EU's import requirements, a phytosanitary certificate will be issued to facilitate movements from GB to NI.

The UK Government is engaged in discussion with the European Commission to seek a lifting of plant health prohibitions, including those on soil and growing media as a commodity. These discussions are ongoing.