London, UK: The Cabinet Office has admitted it will cost businesses £330m each year in additional charges when new post-Brexit border controls on animal and plant products imported from the European Union are introduced next year.
Labour MP Stella Creasy, the chair of the Labour Movement for Europe, received the information in a letter from Lucy Neville-Rolfe, a minister of state in the Cabinet Office.
“It will depend greatly on how businesses adapt their business models and supply chains to integrate the new controls regime,” said Baroness Neville-Rolfe, in the response to Creasy.
“We estimate these new costs of the model at £330m [per annum] overall, across all EU imports. We have not had full biosecurity controls in place at our border since leaving the European Union.”
She said that the UK needs tighter border controls to “protect our international reputation”.
Food and logistics firms have repeatedly warned that the UK’s post-Brexit border strategy risks further pushing up food prices, which have already surged due to rampant inflation.
Shane Brennan, chief executive of the Cold Chain Federation, has previously warned about the changes: “It’s going to make things a lot harder, slower, and more expensive. The result will be fewer choices on the shelf and higher food prices than there would otherwise be.”
In August, the government delayed the introduction of post-Brexit checks on food, plant and animal produce arriving in Britain for the fifth time, meaning they will not start until the end of January 2024.
The government said the delay – from late October – followed consultation with industry which suggested businesses needed more time to prepare.
