FI16956

Request

Can I please request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Can you please provide the following data for each calendar month in 2024, 2025 and for each month so far this year (January, February, March, April). 

1) How many consignments of animal products were instructed at the Port of Dover to attend the Sevington Inland Border Facility for checks to identify illegal meat? 

2) How many consignments of animal products instructed at the Port of Dover to attend the Sevington Inland Border Facility for illegal meat checks did not show up at Sevington for those checks? 

3) How much illegal meat (in tonnes if possible) was confiscated at the Sevington Inland Border Facility each month?

 

Response

1. Dover Port Health Authority carries out spot checks at the border in Dover. Sevington is an inland border facility located in Ashford, approximately 22 miles away from the border, and is not used for illegal meat interceptions.  When illegal meat is identified at the border, it is seized immediately in Dover. It is not allowed to travel inland for further checks, and no instructions are given for such goods to attend the Sevington Inland Border Facility.

2. Dover Port Health Authority cannot and do not instruct consignments of illegal meat to attend Sevington Inland Border Facility for illegal meat checks.

3. Dover District Council and Port Health Authority do not hold this information. 

Responsibility for the Border Control Post (BCP) at Sevington sits with Ashford Borough Council, and enquiries about activity at that site should be directed to them. For context, illegal meat seized at the border is different from non‑compliant commercial products identified at Sevington BCP. Illegal meat seized at the border (Dover) has bypassed all official controls and poses a significant biosecurity and public health risk. This is different from commercial goods that attend Sevington BCP; these consignments are legitimate commercial loads that freely present at Sevington BCP for official checks to take place (regardless of whether they contain meat or not). 

These consignments may sometimes be found to be non‑compliant. Instances of non‑compliance at BCP’s are most commonly due to minor documentation issues, as opposed to indicating that the consignment represents a substantial biosecurity or public health threat. That is why many non-compliant consignments identified at a BCP can and are re-exported.