Plant Health Changes REMINDER 22nd July 22
19 Jul 2022
UPDATED 22.07.2022
From today, UK Plant Health Services are introducing a new GB focused risk-based inspection regime across England, Scotland and Wales. Additionally, a new flat-rate fee will apply across England and Wales for physical and identity checks on imports of plants for planting and cuttings.
There are lots of useful resources on the Plant Health Portal to help you understand what this means for your business:
- Check out this news piece for an overview of both changes
- Find out further information on what import fees are and how they’ve been calculated
- Check out this table which highlights the new frequencies of physical and identity checks
- Frequency of plant health import inspections across GB from 22 July 2022 - UK Plant Health Information Portal (defra.gov.uk)
19.07.2022
As a result of a recent consultation with plant businesses across Great Britain, Defra are introducing two targeted changes to the current plants import regime that will benefit and protect UK plant industries. Both of these changes will come into effect from 22 July, pending final review.
New flat-rate fee
Defra are introducing a new, flat-rate import inspection and identity check fee for plants for planting and cuttings that originate from EU and non-EU countries. The new fee structure will change to be charged at £32.15 for physical inspection fees and £1.57 for identity check fees. As consulted on, this new fee structure will protect British growing industries by making the costs for importing finished plants the same as it is for importing plants for further growing.
Aligning the frequencies of plant import checks
From 22 July 2022, Defra are also implementing a new frequency of checks regime for imports of plants for planting and produce, that will further harmonize the inspection rates for these commodities from EU and non-EU origins.
This new regime will take a scientific approach to balancing biosecurity risk against frictionless border controls for these commodities, ensuring that our approach to targeted inspections remains based on the risk posed to UK biosecurity.
The new frequencies of checks for these imports can be found here. Note these may be subject to further change and we will be publishing confirmed percentages soon.
These new frequencies of checks will look to drastically reduce the volume of import inspections on non-EU produce and plants for planting, aligning them as much as possible with EU check levels for high priority plants and plant products.