The NPA has urged the government to invest to protect the UK’s national biosecurity, ahead of the Autumn Budget, including a multi-year funding proposal for the Dover Port Health Authority and other agencies conducting this ‘vital work’.
The NPA’s Autumn Budget 2025 representation recognises the ‘hugely significant’ £1bn investment’ in a new National Biosecurity Centre as part of the rebuild of APHA’s facilities at Weybridge.
“However, we must continue to highlight our concerns that the UK remains poorly protected from biosecurity and notifiable disease threats, especially given the prevalence of African swine fever (ASF) in parts of the EU and the risk of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), recently active in Germany and other EU member states,” it adds.
“This is due in particular to the high volumes of illegally imported meat that continue to enter the country from ASF infected areas like Romania. This illegal import of meat is coming through both personal import routes as well as commercial routes.
“As such we believe that the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM), in its current form, is not fit for purpose and is highly vulnerable to exploitation from organised crime.”
The NPA calls for the government to address some of the concerns with the functioning of the BTOM and to ensure port health authorities and local authorities, particularly DPHA, are provided with the resource to properly enforce any control measures.
“It is a relatively small investment in order to help prevent a potentially catastrophic disease outbreak in the UK. Therefore, we urge the government to agree a multi-year funding proposal for not just DPHA, but other agencies conducting this vital work,” the document states.
Supporting investment
The submission also calls the government to support capital investment on farm, ensure continued resourcing for the Agricultural Supply Chain Adjudicator (ASCA) and reevaluate the proposed reforms to inheritance tax to take a more targeted approach, in line with the NFU’s proposal.
It notes that the first two rounds of the large infrastructure grants scheme linked to the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway were aimed at calf and hen housing, with the third being ringfenced for indoor pig units.
“While we appreciate there are significant funding pressures across government, this funding is critical to support the extremely costly transition from conventional to flexible farrowing systems,” the submission adds.
“As part of our position paper outlining the industry’s voluntary transition to modern flexible farrowing systems, we included the Building Suppliers Forum (BSF) estimates that it could cost £3,500-£5,000 per sow place to refurbish an existing building with a new system and £5,000-£8,000 for a new building.
“This does not include planning, or any other associated costs and some producers have experienced significantly higher costs than these.
“We would also be willing to engage in discussions with the government around a potential government backed loan scheme to help achieve similar outcomes.
The submission also urges the government to ensure the Agricultural Supply Chain Adjudicator’s office is equipped with adequate resources to ensure it can meet its objectives and operate efficiently, especially as further fair dealing regulations are introduced for additional sectors.