This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Revised action plan on meat imports
26/03/2003
The Executive today welcomed publication of a revised
action plan to tackle illegal imports of meat, announced by
the UK government.
The plan is backed by an extra £25 million over three
years and takes account of an independent assessment of the
risks, which has also been published, of foot and mouth
disease from illegal imports.
From April 11, Customs and Excise will take
responsibility for anti-smuggling of illegal imports of
meat and other animal products directly from non-EU
countries at ports and airports.
The proposed new measures include:
- a new frontier enforcement strategy, with Customs
aiming to detect illegal imports of meat and animal
products
- four new national strike teams of Customs officers
whose priority will be meat and animal products
- more detector dogs (from two up to six)
- continuing risk assessment, intelligence gathering
and sharing
- Improved measures and links to other initiatives to
prevent disease spreading on farms.
- a new publicity drive to raise awareness of import
rules, including in-flight messages and adverts on
seven million ticket wallets
The illegal imports risk assessment, carried out by the
Veterinary Laboratories Agency and independent consultants
SafetyCraft, estimated that the overall probability of FMD
infection in Great Britain from illegal meat and meat
products is one infection between 40 years and 1,100 years,
or on average one infection in 130 years.
This relates only to the risk from illegal imports.
Other factors will contribute to the overall risk of FMD,
including movements of live animals, airborne outbreaks,
and transfer of virus on shoes, clothing and vehicles.
The risk assessment estimates that the amount of illegal
meat imported annually is between 2,800 and 17,500 tonnes.
Of this, the amount contaminated with FMD virus is
estimated to be between 30 and 250kg per year, with only
about 175g of this, on average, will be ingested by
susceptible livestock.
UK Ministers will hold a meeting of the illegal imports
stakeholder forum in the near future to finalise the draft
action plan.
The Products of Animal Origin (Third Country Imports)
(England) (Amendment) Regulations 2003 laid on 21 March and
coming into force on April 11 effect the transfer in
England of responsibility for enforcement of controls on
animal products imported outside the legal channels to
Customs and Excise. Similar legislative changes will be
made in Scotland this week.
Customs and Excise will draw down their existing powers
under the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979. This
means that the maximum penalty for convictions in
Magistrates Courts for smuggling meat will rise from £5,000
to an unlimited fine.