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Call for Evidence

Animal and plant health

Biosecurity at the border

This call for evidence will examine animal and plant biosecurity measures for personal and commercial imports to the UK. The Committee will examine both the stringency of biosecurity controls as well as their impact on international trade.

The Committee is seeking evidence regarding the efficacy of biosecurity measures and what – if any – immediate improvements can be made to personal and commercial import controls in advance, or in the absence, of a sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) or veterinary agreement with the EU.

Written evidence is invited in response to any or all of the following:

  • the adequacy of personal import controls on animals, plants and their products and the enforcement of controls;
  • the adequacy of SPS controls on commercial imports, their enforcement, and the impact on businesses;
  • the performance of Defra and its agencies (such as the APHA) in delivering the Border Target Operating Model and communicating and engaging with stakeholders;
  • how any concerns detailed in your submission may be remedied (in advance, or in the absence, of an SPS agreement with the EU).

 

The deadline for submissions is 23:59 on Wednesday 29 January 2025

 

Important information about making a submission

Written evidence must address the terms of reference as set out above, but please note that submissions do not have to address every point. Guidance on giving evidence to a select committee of the House of Commons is available on the website.

In line with the general practice of select committees the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee is not able to take up individual cases. If you would like political support or advice you may wish to contact your local Member of Parliament.

The Committee will decide whether to accept each submission. If your submission is accepted by the Committee, it will usually be published online. It will then be available permanently for anyone to view. It can’t be changed or removed. If you have included your name or any personal information in your submission, that will normally be published too. Please consider how much personal information you want or need to share. If you include personal information about other people in your submission, the Committee may decide not to publish it. Your contact details will never be published.

Decisions about publishing evidence anonymously, or about accepting but not publishing evidence, are made by the Committee. If you would like to ask the Committee to accept your submission anonymously (meaning it will be published but without your name), or confidentially (meaning it won't be published at all), you can make this request when you upload your submission.

The Committee has discretion over which submissions it accepts as evidence, and which of those it then publishes on its website. We may anonymise or redact some of your submission if it is published. The Committee may decide to accept evidence on a confidential basis. Confidential submissions remain available to the Committee but are not published or referred to in public. All written evidence will be considered by the Committee, whether or not it is published.

If your evidence raises any safeguarding concerns about you, or other people, then the Committee has a duty to raise these with the appropriate safeguarding authority.

If you have immediate safeguarding concerns about yourself or someone else, you should contact the Police on 999.

We can’t publish submissions that mention ongoing legal cases – contact us if you are not sure what this means for you.

Submissions on the terms of reference set out above should be received by 23:59 on Wednesday 29 January 2025.

If you wish to submit evidence after this time, please email efracom@parliament.uk for more information.

This call for written evidence has now closed.

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