Recommendation 11

HM Government Accepted

In April 2022, Defra and the Forestry Commission announced Biosecure Procurement Requirement Pilot, to combat the threat from pests and diseases and further strengthen UK biosecurity fulfilling its commitment set out with ETAP. This means that, from June 2022, applicants for funding under EWCO and the Future Farming Tree Health Pilot must commit to sourcing their trees from suppliers who are either accredited under the Plant Healthy Certification Scheme or who have passed a Ready to Plant assessment, as provided by Fera Science Ltd. This pilot will enable suppliers to demonstrate that their operational practices comply with the industry benchmark Plant Health Management Standard. This Standard includes protocols which are key to developing a robust plant health management system and sets out practical requirements for suppliers to help protect the plant supply chain. The threat of pests and disease is significant and growing as a result of globalisation and climate change. Introducing the Biosecure Procurement Requirement Pilot will address these risks to our biosecurity, minimise the net loss to our existing treescape, and serve to realise our long-term vision for our trees and woodlands. As announced in April 2022 the UK will be delaying its additional import checks until the end of 2023. This will allow time for the UK to harness the benefits of digitisation, making the best use of available data and the latest technology to ensure we maintain and enhance our world class biosecurity standards. We will publish a Target Operating Model in the Autumn that will set out our new regime of border import controls and will target the end of 2023 as the revised date for delivering our controls regime The UK has a strong, risk-based regulatory regime in place which implements a comprehensive range of government measures to minimise biosecurity risks to trees and meet World Trade Organisation standards. This includes a prohibition on the highest risk trees and the phytosanitary certification of those which are permitted for import, to provide official confirmation that prescribed conditions have been complied with. Imports of the highest-risk plants and plant products must be pre-notified to government and are subject to an official inspection and surveillance programme. Plant passporting of all movements of trees, and regulated timber for commercial purposes, is required within GB. Our border inspectors carry out around 70,000 physical checks of imported plants, including trees, each year and are highly effective. The training, assessment and ongoing re-evaluation of plant health inspectors is accredited under the ISO 17020 Standard which is underpinned by external audits from the UK Accreditation Service to ensure delivery of consistently reliable checks. We have established mechanisms in place to manage new and emerging pest and disease threats, for example the recent emergency measures introduced to strengthen import controls against the Pine Processionary Moth. We also constantly review whether further safeguards are needed and have a scientific process to assess the changing threats to plant biosecurity. The UK Plant Health Risk Register contains details of over 1200 plant pests and pathogens, 30% of which can affect trees. Risks are reviewed monthly with Ministers and prioritised for action such as further regulation or increased inspections. Regulations associated with tree and plant imports are frequently reviewed and updated as part of this process. In the England Tree Action Plan, we committed to consult on additional biosecurity measures for high-risk tree species and commodities, and this review is currently under way as part of the consultation process for the new GB Plant Biosecurity Strategy. Further details on this will be published in the new GB Plant Biosecurity Strategy later this year.