Border control changes – 30th of April 2024

The next tranche of changes to border controls come in on the 30th of April 2024. In summary, documentary and physical checks will apply on medium risk animal products, plants, plant products and high-risk food and feed of non-animal origin from the EU. Note: fruit and vegetables will require phytosanitary certificates. Simplified imports from Rest of World (RoW) will be based on risk levels.

Members have been working to ensure compliance with the key changes below, effective from 30th of April 2024, and key guidance/information to support has been shared below:

  • Goods from The European Union (EU)/The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) to enter Great Britain (GB) through designated Border Control Posts (BCPs) or Control Points (CPs) for applicable commodity type(s), ready to present the consignment for risk-based documentary, physical and identification inspections when called.
  • Defra has published guidance on import risk categories for animal and animal products here and for plants and plant products here. For plants and plant products, all goods in the high and medium categories require a Phytosanitary Certificate (PC) and pre-notification needs to be made on IPAFFS (Import of Products, Animals, Food and Feed System). Note: from 30th of January 2024, Export Health Certificates (EHCs) need to be pre-registered on the IPAFFS, and Defra has shared positive feedback in our meetings on compliance, including 75% of certificates being digital. Defra continues to encourage early pre-notification to the Port Health Authorities for checks to avoid delays in processing, and use of digital certificates. Please note common errors are reported for paper EHCs with no signature, general errors and omissions lacking accuracy. See here. Guidance for IPAFFS is available here.
  • Defra has published the following guidance for designated applications of BCPs: Border control posts: designation applications in progress - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Any approved BCPs for animal and animal product imports will be published here and for plants and plant products here.
  • A Common User Charge applies to imports to GB through the port of Dover and Eurotunnel. A response to the result consultation was shared earlier this month here and the below summary of charges apply:
    • Low-risk products of animal origin (POAO):
      Imports -       £10 per commodity line, Transits - £10 per commodity line
    • Medium-risk POAO:
      Imports -       £29 per commodity line​​​​​​​, Transits - £10 per commodity line
    • High-risk POAO:
      Imports -       £29 per commodity line​​​​​​​, Transits- £10 per commodity line
    • Low-risk plants and plant products:
      Imports -       no common user charge, Transits - no common user charge
    • Medium-risk plants and plant products:
      Imports -       £29 per commodity line, Transits - no common user charge
    • High-risk plants and plant products:
      Imports -       £29 per commodity line​​​​​​​, Transits - no common user charge
  • IUU fishing documentation: Catch certificates, processing statements and evidence of storage to be uploaded to IPAFFS before submitting import notifications.

A reminder of webinars to support preparation of changes here. Updates will continue to be shared to members and please do let us know if we can support with anything.