Lorries with unsafe meat imports skip border checks, UK government says
#lorries #unsafe meat imports #border checks #Dover #Sevington #Defra #post-Brexit #drive-bys #food safety #border control post
📌 Key Takeaways
- 18% of consignments selected for inspection in November 2024 were classified as 'drive-bys' and not checked
- Lorry drivers are supposed to travel 22 miles from Dover to Sevington border control post for inspections
- The House of Commons committee described the system as 'dysfunctional'
- Defra officials acknowledged carrying out 'follow-up' checks but lacked sufficient data on enforcement
- The Sevington facility cost £23mn to run in the year to April 2025
- Food industry groups have repeatedly warned the system is ripe for abuse
📖 Full Retelling
The UK government, specifically the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), has reported that lorries carrying potentially unsafe meat imports are avoiding mandatory border checks at Dover, the UK's busiest port. This issue occurred between November 2024 and November 2025, with the House of Commons environment, food and rural affairs committee highlighting the problem on Wednesday. This situation reveals a major flaw in the UK's post-Brexit border regime, where drivers are supposed to travel 22 miles to a government-run border control post for inspections but are instead continuing to their destinations without checks, risking the importation of products carrying potentially devastating diseases.
🏷️ Themes
Border security failures, Post-Brexit trade complications, Food safety concerns, Government accountability, Data management issues
Entity Intersection Graph
No entity connections available yet for this article.
Original Source
Lorries with unsafe meat imports skip border checks, UK government says on x (opens in a new window) Lorries with unsafe meat imports skip border checks, UK government says on facebook (opens in a new window) Lorries with unsafe meat imports skip border checks, UK government says on linkedin (opens in a new window) Lorries with unsafe meat imports skip border checks, UK government says on whatsapp (opens in a new window) Save Lorries with unsafe meat imports skip border checks, UK government says on x (opens in a new window) Lorries with unsafe meat imports skip border checks, UK government says on facebook (opens in a new window) Lorries with unsafe meat imports skip border checks, UK government says on linkedin (opens in a new window) Lorries with unsafe meat imports skip border checks, UK government says on whatsapp (opens in a new window) Save Madeleine Speed in London Published March 4 2026 Jump to comments section Print this page Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Lorries arriving at Dover with potentially unsafe meat imports are not showing up for checks, the government has acknowledged, highlighting a major flaw in the UK’s post-Brexit border regime. Some 18 per cent of all consignments selected for inspection in November last year were classified as “drive-bys”, meaning they were not checked, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs . Lorry drivers transporting consignments of meat and other animal products flagged for inspection are supposed to travel 22 miles from Dover, the UK’s busiest port, to “self declare” at Sevington, a government-run border control post near Ashford. But almost one-fifth were “flouting this requirement” and continuing to their destination with little risk of repercussions, the House of Commons environment, food and rural affairs committee said on Wednesday. “This new evidence from Defra paints a picture of a dysfunc...
Read full article at source