London, UK: The government has denied reports that post-Brexit checks on EU goods “won’t be ‘turned on’” from the end of the month. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has dismissed recent media reports claiming that physical border checks on EU plant and food imports will be “turned off”.
A Defra statement said: “As has been previously outlined, we will be commencing checks from 30 April. Our enforcement approach will be graduated to help traders to comply.”
“Checks are commencing from 30 April and, as we have always said, the medium and high-risk goods posing the greatest biosecurity risk are being prioritised as we build up to full check rates and high levels of compliance,” a government spokesperson said. “Taking a pragmatic approach to introducing our new border checks minimises disruption, protects our biosecurity and benefits everyone – especially traders.”
The statement also said that the UK government has full confidence that the facilities, infrastructure and systems at the border will be ready for the 30 April implementation date.
Defra’s statement follows a news report by the Financial Times which claimed that Defra had told port authorities it would not “’turn on” critical health and safety checks for EU imports” because of the risk of “significant disruption”.
