Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 7
52nd Report - Resilience to threats from animal disease
Published 5 Nov 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Resilience to threats from animal disease All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Controls at the border to prevent a new disease arriving in the UK via illegal meat imports are insufficient to the level of risk. Dover Port Health Authority (DPHA) reported a fifty-five-fold increase in the seizures of illegal meat imports from January 2023 to January 2025. The Department is not clear whether this is due to an increase in actual imports, or better surveillance and enforcement activities. The Department provides DPHA with some funding to complete proactive illegal meat checks, but this only allows DPHA to undertake this work for 20% of the time. Future funding allocations are subject to the Department’s upcoming business planning processes. The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has also raised several concerns about the increase in illegal meat imports. recommendation The Department should: a. undertake research to understand the reasons for the apparent increase in illegal meat imports to the UK to inform future policy and funding decisions; and b. when determining the resources made available to DPHA and Border Force at Dover to tackle illegal meat imports, weigh this against the significant costs a major disease outbreak could have if introduced through the port of Dover. c. The Department should set out what more can be done to educate travellers not to bring illegal food products into the UK and that high fines are imposed on those that do.
From: Public Accounts Committee, 52nd Report - Resilience to threats from animal disease (HC 885), 5 November 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fifty-second Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 5 January 2026).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fifth-second report from Session 2024-26
Published 19 January 2026.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it agrees with the Committee's recommendations it addresses, giving target implementation dates between February 2026 and Summer 2027.
- On preparedness, the department and APHA, working with the Welsh and Scottish Governments, "will review and update as required" disease control strategies for four higher-risk diseases by March 2027, and review all strategies on a rolling three year cycle.
- On vet vacancies, the department is establishing a government veterinary services working group to create a workforce strategy, and "will consult" on reform of the Veterinary Surgeon's Act.
- On APHA modernisation, milestones run from spring 2026 to autumn 2026, but progress "is dependent on future funding arrangements, and additional funding may be required".
- On illegal meat imports, the department is "actively considering increases to the funding" for Dover Port Health Authority, and says funding decisions will take account of preventing the costs of major disease outbreaks.