Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs written question – answered at on 20 November 2014.
Nicholas Soames
Conservative, Mid Sussex
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she has taken to increase the number of ports with facilities for the inspection of imported food; and if she will make a statement.
George Eustice
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
It is for port operators to decide if they wish to provide border inspection facilities to facilitate the importation of regulated food products. Defra’s responsibility, with regard to imports of animal products, is to work with Port Health Authorities and the Food and Veterinary Office of the European Commission to ensure that such facilities meet EU standards. The Food Standards Agency fulfils a similar role for the approval of Designated Points of Entry for food of non-animal origin.
I recognise the importance of having an adequate network of inspection facilities. I would welcome representations from interested parties, if it is believed there is a problem with the current provision of such facilities.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
The European Commission is the politically independent institution that represents and upholds the interests of the EU as a whole. It is the driving force within the EU’s institutional system: it proposes legislation, policies and programmes of action and it is responsible for implementing the decisions of Parliament and the Council.
Like the Parliament and Council, the European Commission was set up in the 1950s under the EU’s founding treaties.
