The government has admitted it will cost businesses £330m each year in additional charges when new post-Brexit border controls on animal and plant products imported from the European Union are implemented next year.
Lucy Neville-Rolfe, a minister of state in the Cabinet Office, confirmed the estimated annual cost, adding that the UK needs tighter border controls to “protect our international reputation” in a letter to Labour MP Stella Creasy, the chair of the Labour Movement for Europe.
“It will depend greatly on how businesses adapt their business models and supply chains to integrate the new controls regime,” said Baroness Neville-Rolfe in the response to Creasy. “We estimate these new costs of the model at £330m [per annum] overall, across all EU imports. We have not had full biosecurity controls in place at our border since leaving the European Union.”
Food and logistics firms have repeatedly warned that the UK’s post-Brexit border strategy risks further pushing up food prices, which have already surged due to rampant inflation. In August, the government delayed for the fifth time the introduction of post-Brexit checks on food, plant, and animal produce arriving in Britain, meaning they will not begin until the end of January 2024.
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