At-risk products from countries with foot and mouth outbreak crossed border, Defra admits

Professor Christine Middlemiss, the UK’s chief veterinary officer, and Dr Jenny Stewart, CEO of the Animal and Plant Health Agency, also confirmed that it took six days for the border IT system to update and block meat and dairy products from Germany.

The UK has managed to avoid cases of foot and mouth being recorded, despite outbreaks also occurring in Hungary, Slovakia and Austria.

Dr Middlemiss and Dr Stewart had written to the chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) Committee of MPs, Alistair Carmichael, which scrutinises Defra.

Mr Carmichael previously wrote to the government on several occasions requesting answers after “alarming” evidence on border controls around foot and mouth.

The head of port health and public protection at the Dover Port Health Authority, Lucy Manzano, previously told the MPs: “We are aware that for at least six days German products were able to autoclear the very systems to detect them and remove them.”

After months of questions to Defra from The Yorkshire Post, this has now been confirmed.

Giving evidence to the Efra Committee, the Biosecurity Minister, Baroness Sue Hayman, said that “in that small gap we ensured there was proper information shared”.

“We did react very swiftly for foot and mouth,” she claimed.

“On the very day that Germany announced it had a case of foot and mouth we contacted the port health authorities and told them they were not to allow in those imports from Germany.”

Since then, the Government has banned personal imports of meat and dairy products from Europe, for fears around the spread of both foot and mouth and African swine fever.

“The biosecurity measures we have in place I believe are robust,” Baroness Hayman added.

“They have been improved since we came into government.

“We've made some changes to tighten up biosecurity, particularly around personal imports of certain products.

“Of course, nothing is ever 100 per cent secure, but I take it very, very seriously that my responsibility is to ensure that the checks and balances are as robust as possible to protect the country, while still facilitating trade.”