Source · Select Committees · Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee

3rd report - Biosecurity at the border: Britain's illegal meat crisis

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee HC 1296 Published 8 September 2025

Report Status

Government responded

Conclusions & Recommendations

25 items (15 recs)

Source

View on Parliament website ↗

Government Response

AI assessment · 25 of 25 classified

Accepted 3

Accepted in Part 11

Acknowledged 6

Deferred 1

Rejected 4

Government response

3rd Special Report - Biosecurity at the border: Britain’s illegal meat crisis: Government Response · published 11 Nov 2025

Read the government response ↗ Response on the Index

Recommendations & Conclusions

1 item

6 Conclusion Deferred

Defra's approach to EU personal imports has been lax, reactive, and complicated.

Conclusion

Under successive governments, Defra’s approach to personal imports from the EU since 2021 has been unnecessarily lax, too reactive and overly complicated. Temporary personal import rules create confusion for travellers, uncertainty for farmers, and difficulty for enforcement professionals. (Conclusion, Paragraph … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government states it has deferred permanent personal import rules from the EU until January 2027 and currently has no plans to consult on a permanent policy. It notes existing temporary safeguard measures are in place to address biosecurity risks.

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

View Details →