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Brexit border IT outages delay import of perishable items to UK by up to 20 hours

Lorries carrying perishable food and plants from the EU are being held for up to 20 hours at the UK's busiest Brexit border post as failures with the government's IT systems delay imports entering Britain.

Businesses have described the government's new border control checks as a "disaster" after IT outages led to lorries carrying meat, cheese and cut flowers being held for long periods, reducing the shelf life of their goods and prompting retailers to reject some orders.


The worst disruption was last weekend, with dozens of lorries being held at the government's control post serving Dover and the Channel tunnel for periods of between eight and 20 hours after the IT system that registers goods went down. Ministers brought in physical checks on animal and plant products from the EU at the start of this month as part of its post-Brexit import regime.

However, since their introduction, problems with the government's Automatic Licence Verification System (ALVS) have led to an increasing number of lorries being held at border posts for many hours while the checking of documents is carried out manually.

Read more at theguardian.com

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