The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Select Committee has warned that a significant number of consignments of flagged meat and plant product imports are passing through the Port of Dover without being checked for diseases.
This news came to light at an EFRA Select Committee meeting on Monday (March 3), where several senior Defra representatives were invited to answer questions on the department’s “perceived shortcomings and examples of poor communication with its stakeholders.”
During the meeting, Defra provided data on its checking system for consignments of flagged meat and plant product imports into the Port of Dover.
Border checks
The data shows the percentage of consignments of meat and plant products that were taken, after being flagged, from Dover to the sole Border Control Post (BCP) in Sevington, which is located 22 miles from the port.
According to the data, which relates to November 2025, 18% of flagged consignments of animal-origin, such as meat or dairy were not taken to Sevington despite being directed there by the digital systems once they entered Dover, meaning that the consignments were not checked for dangerous diseases by BCP officials.
This data represents a 10% increase in non-attendance incidents from two months previously, which was 8%.
Defra representatives told the EFRA Committee that the department refers to these non-attendance incidents at Sevington as “drive-bys”.
In September last year, the committee published a report highlighting how the Sevington facility was “inadequate” due to an over-reliance on “drivers acting in good faith” by taking their consignments there for checks, with very little risk of enforcement if they failed to do so.
Defra representatives claimed that “follow up” checks with vehicles and consignments that do not attend Sevington are being carried out, however the department staff “did not elaborate on how frequently this happens or how they are carried out as they do not have data”.
EFRA
The chair of the committee, Alistair Carmichael described the situation at Sevington as “a dysfunctional system” and “a disaster waiting to happen”.
He said: “The government has put all its eggs in the Sevington basket and it needs to make this system work at least until a new system can be agreed with the EU.”
Carmichael highlighted that Ashford Port Authority, which operates Sevington, introduced a pilot programme to address drive-bys, however these efforts were reportedly only carried out for plant products and did not continue past the pilot stage.
“In other words, government won’t commit the resources to keep this going and have not so far expanded it for meat and dairy imports.
“How terribly short-sighted that will look if another outbreak of foot and mouth [disease] arises from this farce,” he added.
