BORDER TARGET OPERATING MODEL – COMPLIANCE AND ENFORCEMENT APPROACH

At Aerona we have received the following notification from DEFRA. It relates to threats to
public health from animal and plant disease, such as African Swine Fever and Xylella fastidosa. These threats continue to change and so it is important that you have responsive bio-security controls in place to combat them.
The UK government now expects that the supply chain of goods subject to Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) controls must be ready for the following changes:

From 31 st January 2024 traders must:

• Continue to provide an Export Health Certificate (EHC) for all live animal and germinal product imports.
• Obtain an Export Health Certificate (EHC) for medium-risk animal products some high-risk food and feed not of animal origin (HRFNAO).
• Obtain a Phytosanitary Certificate (PCs) for medium-risk plants and plant products.
• Continue to provide a Phytosanitary Certificate (PCs) for high-risk plants and plant
  products.

It is also important that the person responsible for the load:

Must continue (or begin for movements from Ireland) to pre-notify Great Britain via the import of Products, Animals, Food and Feed not of animal origin (IPAFFS) for all live animals, germinal products, animal products, high-risk foods and feed of animal origin (HRFNAO) and medium and high-risk plant and plant products. 

At Aerona, we will do our best to inform, enable and enforce.  We recognise that most traders will want to meet their obligations to comply with these important regulations.

The border target operating model for EU movements of goods is, therefore, focused on assisting these traders to meet the requirements of the new regime.  Officials will initially take a graduated approach to enforcement. This will help traders to get it right rather than penalising them should they get it wrong. 

Officials will help and guide traders to understand what they need to do to comply.  They will also work with traders to assist compliance if errors are uncovered. 

Your responsibilities on how to be compliant can be found here: 

• Guidance on importing live animals or animal products – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

For those organisations who continually fail their obligations, thereby putting the UK’s bio-security and public health at risk, proportionate enforcement action will be taken.

Graduated enforcement – 31 st January to 30th April 2024.
Officials will undertake documentary checks for medium-risk animal products and high-risk food of non-animal origin from EU/EFTA countries.  These will be undertaken on a randomly selected sample. Traders will be provided with a specific feedback if their consignment is selected.
Goods selected for sample documentary checks will not be held for inspection. No charges will be levied.

If, as an importer, you have done your best to obtain a health certificate but are unable to comply, you should contact the UK Animal & Plant Health Agency (APHA) as quickly as possible.

The telephone number is: 03000 200 301.

Email: Imports@apha.gov.uk

Intervention will only occur if there is a threat to public health or bio-security. This is expected to be limited and only in exceptional circumstances.

Pre-notifications IPAFFS

Pre-notifications must be submitted one working day before a consignment’s arrival in GB. This is an existing requirement for goods from the EU, excluding goods from Ireland.
This requirement continues from 31 st January 2024 for all currently applicable EU goods. It will also be introduced for EU and non-qualifying Northern Ireland goods from 31 st January 2024.

Important … if a notification is made late for EHCs selected for checks by DEFRA, the importer will be notified. Goods will NOT be held or called into BCPs/CPs.

Importers will be able to contact Port Health Authorities (PHAs) to reduce the pre-notification window to a minimum of 4 hours.

Remember, for further information you can contact Aerona by telephoning 0161 652 3443. Feel free to email us at sales@aerona.co.uk. Also, you can use the form located on our Contact page to send us a message.  Please remember, at Aerona we are here to help you