New report claims Government 'no deal' plans would abandon border checks for perishable goods

The report states “In recent months, we have learned from a senior government adviser that plans are being prepared to ‘suspend food controls’ if there are any delays to imports of perishable foods at our borders. We learned too that other policy commentators had been told the same by senior Defra personnel. One government adviser even informed us that the plans were being devised ‘to avoid parliamentary scrutiny’.

‘One could argue that this is sensible emergency planning,’ says co-author Prof Tim Lang, ‘but it is also risky. Consumers would rightly wonder who was guaranteeing the safety and quality of the imported food they were buying. Criminals would be alerted to opportunities for food fraud. And the move would send negative signals to the EU, at a delicate time in Brexit negotiations. It could make the UK’s 3^rd country status more problematic for exports.”

The report, co-written by Prof Tim Lang (City), Prof Erik Millstone (Sussex), Tony Lewis (Head of Policy, Chartered Institute of Environmental Health) and Prof Terry Marsden (Cardiff) takes stock of how food, food security and food regulation are being addressed by HM Government in the Brexit discussions.  

The authors welcome the fact that the Chequers Statement of 6 July and subsequent White Paper recognise the importance of agri-food to Brexit but argue that the documents have ‘major weaknesses’. They say the Government makes a ‘fundamental mistake in proposing close alignment with the EU only for farming and manufacturing, but not for retail or food service’.

You can read news coverage of the report in the Guardian here and the I here