Efforts to keep potentially disease-ridden meat out of the UK are being undermined by post-Brexit border checks, a senior health official has said. The boss of the Dover Port Health Authority said illegal meat, which has not been through proper health checks, was now available on “most High Streets” in the UK. European outbreaks of deadly animal diseases in recent months have left health authorities, Whitehall officials and many in the farming industry worried about the threat they pose to the UK. But the government has previously insisted the new system of post-Brexit border checks that came into effect in April last year is capable of keeping the UK disease-free. Under the post-Brexit system, checks on commercial vehicles do not take place at Dover itself. Instead, drivers are ordered to travel 22 miles away to a border control post at Sevington. But critics have warned that many lorries are simply failing to turn up for the checks, due to a lack of enforcement. Lucy Manzano, head of the Dover Port Health Authority, told MPs on the committee that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) had been overstating the effectiveness of the system. She said: “Defra have continually stated that there are robust controls in place. There are not. They don’t exist.” Almost 100 tonnes of illegal meat was seized at the Port of Dover last year. Defra said the government “will never waver in its duty to protect the UK’s biosecurity” and insisted it was working effectively with enforcement agencies.
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