Lorries Skipping Border Checks Pose Disease Risk, MPs Warn

A growing number of lorries carrying meat and dairy products into Britain are bypassing mandatory biosecurity checks, raising fears that deadly animal diseases could enter the country unchallenged, a parliamentary committee has warned.
The problem centres on the post-Brexit border inspection system at Dover, where commercial vehicles carrying animal products are not checked at the port itself but are instead directed 22 miles away to a government control post at Sevington, near Ashford in Kent. Lorries flagged for inspection are required to make their own way there — but an increasing number are simply not showing up.
Figures provided by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs reveal the scale of the problem. In August 2025, 8% of flagged animal product consignments failed to attend Sevington. By November 2025, that figure had risen to 18% — meaning nearly one in five flagged lorries were going unchecked.
Parliament’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, which oversees Defra, said the consequences of continued failures could be severe. The committee identified African swine fever, foot-and-mouth disease and the plant pathogen Xylella bacteria — all currently circulating in parts of Europe — as among the diseases that unchecked imports could introduce to UK livestock and agriculture.
The committee also raised concerns about criminal activity, saying there was growing evidence that a reputation for weak enforcement at Dover was attracting gangs seeking to import products that would not legally be permitted for sale elsewhere in Europe.
Alistair Carmichael, the committee’s chairman, described the picture emerging from Defra’s own data as “dysfunctional,” warning that unchecked products were effectively being “let in through the front door.” He said the risks to UK livestock and plant life represented “a disaster waiting to happen” and called on the government to make the Sevington system function properly while longer-term arrangements with the EU are explored.
The committee also criticised Defra over a pilot scheme designed to chase up plant consignments that had not reached the control post within three hours of arriving at Dover. Although the scheme was said to have reduced non-compliance and improved data quality, the government has not committed funding to continue it — nor extended it to cover meat and dairy lorries.
Defra has been approached for comment.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​