This newsletter from the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) covers the latest operational updates on requirements and border controls for importing live animals, germinal products, products of animal origin and animal by-products into Great Britain.
In this newsletter:
PHES maintenance
Lumpy skin disease in Italy and France
Authorised Operator Status (AOS) Pilot
FMD – avoid processing delays at the border
Useful contacts and information
PHES Maintenance
On Thursday 10 July 2025, between 6:30pm and 10:00pm, PHES (Plant Health Export Service) will be unavailable due to planned maintenance.
During this time, you will be unable to access the services. Normal service should resume from 10:00pm onwards.
Apologies for any inconvenience caused.
Lumpy skin disease in Italy
Lumpy Skin Disease has been confirmed in two European countries. An outbreak was confirmed in Italy on 21 June 2025 followed by France on 29 June 2025.
In response, Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) has suspended the import of the following bovine products from Italy and France:
live animals
germplasm
offal (except diaphragm and masseter muscles)
raw milk and raw dairy products, including raw colostrum
milk and dairy products that have undergone a lower heat treatment than pasteurisation (72ºC for 15 seconds), unless they have been through an ageing or maturation process which commenced before 23 May 2025
hides and skins, unless they have been treated in line with point 2b, c or d of Article 11.9.13 of the WOAH terrestrial code
all animal by-products (except casings, gelatine, collagen, tallow, hooves and horns), unless the products were processed using heat treatment to a minimum internal temperature of 65°C for at least 30 minutes.
Updated safeguard measures restricting the commercial import of untreated skins and hides, certain milk and dairy products derived from bovine animals that have undergone a lower heat treatment than pasteurisation, and animal by-products derived from bovine animals from France and Italy will be published shortly.
One of the proposals within the 2023 Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) was to explore the introduction of a delegated authority model for the checks of plants and plant products, which would allow eligible traders to manage their own SPS risks. This approach was called ‘Authorised Operator Status’ (AOS). AOS proposed to give responsibility to Authorised Operators (AOs) to carry out their own physical and identity checks, provided they met certain eligibility criteria such as suitable infrastructure and completion of prescribed training. This would allow importers to have the opportunity to benefit from additional flexibility over the location and timing of their import checks.
A pilot to test the feasibility of AOS in terms of biosecurity and operator competency ran from June to December 2024. We were clear at the outset that this was a pilot and not the launch of a new delegated authority model, and that the pilot may demonstrate non-feasibility which could lead to a decision for AOS not to proceed. During the pilot, authorised operators were given thorough training to carry out examinations of their imports to prescribed procedures under APHA supervision.
Eight businesses participated in the pilot with Defra carrying out an evaluation at the end of the pilot on the feasibility and scaling of the programme.
As part of the evaluation, it showed:
The AOS pilot ran from June to December 2024 with eight participants and whilst the pilot showed an increase in knowledge and capability around biosecurity for those participating businesses, it also showed that there would be significant challenges in scaling-up AOS.
These challenges include providing value for money for the UK taxpayer with the significant investment in IT systems required and the feasibility of bringing AOS processes to the level needed to assure biosecurity at a national scale and still provide value for money.
Since the pilot closed the UK Government and the European Union have now reached a common understanding to proceed with an SPS Agreement which will facilitate the smooth flow of agrifood and plants between Great Britain and the EU.
Once finalised, the agreement will remove a broad and wide-ranging set of SPS and agri-food requirements for goods and plants moving from Great Britain and the EU.
We have also announced that we will not be introducing checks on fruit and vegetables entering GB from the EU in July 2025.
The decision, regarding AOS, has been made in light of this new context.
Therefore, the decision has been taken not to progress AOS at this time. Traders who are Control Point (CP) designated can continue having their goods checked on-site by an APHA inspector and will retain their CP status.
We have shared this update with all businesses that participated in the pilot.
FMD – avoid processing delays at the border
We understand that enhanced controls on FMD-susceptible meat, milk, and milk products from Hungary, Slovakia and Eswatini may present challenges for traders. We appreciate your cooperation and support in maintaining Great Britain’s FMD-free status.
The following are actions that you and/or your agent can take to help mitigate some of the most common causes of processing delays that we’re currently seeing at the border. Please pass to your agent for information.
1. Multiple CHEDs under the same MRN.
Where a load or container consists of a mixed load or groupage, there is an increased risk that the SPS hold on the customs declaration will not be lifted if one or more of the consignments in the load requires an inspection.
Example: an agent or importer has correctly submitted 3 separate CHED import notifications in IPAFFS for 3 consignments in a vehicle’s load. All 3 are correctly recorded on the customs declaration in CDS.
Checking on IPAFFS, two of the consignments have been cleared as valid but one is still undergoing documentary checks and has not yet been cleared. An SPS hold is showing on the customs declaration in CDS.
Once all 3 CHEDS are cleared as valid by the Port Health Authority, the SPS hold is removed from the customs declaration and HMRC/Border Force can release the load if no further customs checks are required.
Action to take: Traders and their agents are asked to check the status of their consignments via IPAFFS and CDS and where necessary discuss options to minimise delays with the Port Health Authority/Local Authority (PHA/LA) at the point of entry. These may include devanning and separating the consignments. This is likely to require the resubmission of the customs declaration for the load.
2. Removal of consignments for inspections.
If your supplier off-loads a particular consignment before it reaches Great Britain, and you or your agent cancels the accompanying CHED import notification in IPAFFS, it is important that you or your agent also amends the pre-lodged customs declaration in CDS to remove the relevant commodity codes and CHED reference number for the consignment. This also applies if you ask the PHA to cancel the CHED on your behalf.
Action to take: You or your agent should amend the customs declaration to remove any cancelled CHEDs. If the customs declaration is not amended, the SPS hold will persist because CDS is not able to access the inspection decision for the cancelled CHED.
Consignments will not be released until the customs declaration is amended and the SPS hold lifted. In exceptional cases where the CDS entry cannot be amended, the National Clearance Hub can issue a manual release. NCH will NOT release holds for any other reason.
3. Consignment remains under an SPS hold in CDS
Where a consignment is still under an SPS hold on CDS despite all SPS checks being complete and all CHEDs showing as valid on IPAFFS, this may be due to inconsistencies in data entry between the CHED import notification and the customs declaration.
Action to take: Traders and agents should check both submissions and amend as necessary. The most common errors include:
the CHED reference number being incorrectly entered into CDS
commodity codes not aligning
non-English characters/text copied and pasted into CHED fields on IPAFFS.
the final destination is not a recognised GB address / country code is not given as GB.
Useful contacts
Imports of animalproducts: for urgent questions about imports of animal products, including germinal products, contact the Port Health Authority or Local Authority at the Border Control Post (BCP) for the goods’ point of entry. Find the BCP and the PHA/LA contact information on this map or list.
Imports of live animals: for urgent questions about imports of live animals, contact APHA.
Imports of plants and plant products: for urgent questions regarding imports into England and Wales, contact the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), by email, in the first instance: phsi-importers@apha.gov.uk . Alternatively, you can contact them by telephone: +44 (0) 3000 200 301
If you need technical help with IPAFFS, please call the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) helpline on 0330 041 6999 or email APHAServiceDesk@apha.gov.uk (not 24 hours)
