Chapter 1: Introduction
What is biosecurity?
1.Biosecurity is variously defined as “protection against the incursion or escape of potentially harmful or undesirable organisms, especially pathogens”,1 and as “a strategic and integrated approach to analysing and managing relevant risks to human, animal and plant life and health and associated risks for the environment”.2 These organisms can enter the UK via land, sea or air. For the purposes of this report, we have focused on measures to prevent the spread of disease in animals and plants, and the spread of invasive non-native species. We have not included any consideration of measures to prevent bioterrorism or other intentional malicious uses of biotechnology or biological agents.
Why is biosecurity important?
2.The Royal Society of Biology told the Committee: “Biosecurity breaches at a local or national scale can have profoundly negative effects on the economy and society as a whole; the 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak is a case in point.”3 A National Audit Office report on that outbreak estimated that the direct cost to the public sector was over £3 billion and the cost to the private sector over £5 billion; more than six million animals were slaughtered.4
3.Dr Matt Elliot, Conservation Adviser at the Woodland Trust, cited Dutch elm disease, which within a decade of its introduction in the late 1960s led to the death of approximately 20 million of the UK’s 30 million elms.5 Dr Elliot made the striking point that, in the UK, “the generation born in the 1980s … will never have seen a mature elm tree in the landscape”.6 Dr Paul Walton, Head of Habitats and Species at RSPB Scotland, told us that invasive non-native species have been the “primary cause of bird extinctions globally over the past few centuries”.7
4.These examples show the impact that plant and animal diseases have had in the past, but the threat remains high today. Dr Elliot told the Committee that “a recent study identified 47 pests and diseases that are present in Europe which, if they got to the UK, would cost over £1 billion to clean up”.8 Dr Walton stated: “The Government’s estimate of the cost of invasive species, which was made getting on for 10 years ago now, is £1.7 billion per year.”9 And Professor Nicola Spence, Chief Plant Health Officer at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), told us:
“Global trade, passenger movements and trading in plants and plant products have increased dramatically over the last 10 to 15 years, resulting in increased risk of importing pests and diseases … Last year, for example, over 300 different pests and diseases were intercepted at our borders.”10
5.Plant and animal diseases, and invasive non-native species, are a constant threat to the UK’s ecology and economy. Ensuring effective biosecurity measures are in place is therefore of great and lasting importance.
How is biosecurity currently managed in the UK?
6.Most of the UK’s legislative framework on biosecurity, and the systems and processes in place to manage biosecurity risks, comes from the EU.
7.EU legislation includes a range of measures aimed at preventing the spread of disease, including “targeted surveillance, movement controls and eradication strategies”,11 and agreed lists of species that are “deemed so potentially harmful to the EU that their presence and use in the EU is highly restricted”.12 Having common standards and controls means that plants and animals (and plant and animal products) can move freely within the EU Single Market; stricter controls are then in place for imports from non-EU countries.
8.EU legislation is discussed in Chapter 2 of this report; inspections and trade in Chapter 4.
9.As a member of the EU, the UK is also part of shared disease notification systems, and systems that monitor plant and animal movements. Risk assessments and risk management decisions in relation to animal and plant health, food and food safety are all undertaken at an EU level. These systems and processes are addressed in Chapter 3.
10.EU legislation is, in turn, based on international agreements established by the World Trade Organization (WTO). The Organisation for Animal Health, the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the International Plant Protection Convention all set international standards for biosecurity as part of the WTO framework.13 The UK is a member of these bodies,14 and currently submits information to them via the EU.
11.Within these EU and international frameworks the UK also has a limited ability to take its own biosecurity measures, where such action does not impede the EU’s competence to act. Relevant EU legislation usually includes provisions allowing the individual Member States to take emergency measures to deal with biosecurity threats.15 Lord Gardiner of Kimble, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Rural Affairs and Biosecurity at Defra, gave the example of Epitrix (a flea beetle that can pose a significant threat to potato crops):
“We decided on the basis of scientific evidence and a risk-management assessment, and with an element of precaution, that we should take national measures. We and Ireland were the only countries in the EU to take that but we took the view … that we should act.”16
12.While operating under a global framework, and with some opportunities for national measures, much of the UK’s biosecurity currently depends upon cooperation with the EU.
About this inquiry
13.Given the critical importance of effective biosecurity measures to our food supply, environment and economy, and given that most of the UK’s current biosecurity measures derive from its EU membership, the EU Energy and Environment Sub-Committee decided to consider what impact Brexit might have on the UK’s plant and animal biosecurity.
14.The Committee, whose members are listed in Appendix 1, met to take evidence in April and May 2018. We are grateful to those who gave oral evidence and those who responded to our request for written contributions, all of whom are listed in Appendix 2.
15.We make this report to the House for debate.
1 Oxford English Dictionary: http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/273827?redirectedFrom=biosecurity& [accessed 25 July 2018]
2 International Food Safety Authorities Network, Biosecurity: An integrated approach to manage risk to human, animal and plant life and health (March 2010): http://www.who.int/foodsafety/fs_management/No_01_Biosecurity_Mar10_en.pdf [accessed 25 July 2018]
4 National Audit Office, The 2001 Outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (June 2002), p 1: https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2002/06/0102939.pdf [accessed 25 July 2018]
5 Forestry Commission, Dutch elm disease: https://www.forestry.gov.uk/dutchelmdisease [accessed 25 July 2018]
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.
13 For example Q 5 (Dr Robert Black); Q 26 (Dr Christine Middlemiss); written evidence from the Ornamental Aquatic Trade Association (PAB0002); written evidence from the National Farmers’ Union (PAB0031).
14 Both individually and, where relevant, as an EU Member State. The UK will continue to be an individual member post-Brexit.
15 See, for example: Article 10 of Directive 90/425/EEC concerning veterinary and zootechnical checks applicable in intra-Community trade in certain live animals and products with a view to the completion of the internal market; or, Article 16 of Directive 2000/29/EC on protective measures against the introduction into the Community of organisms harmful to plants or plant products and against their spread within the Community.