The new Border Control Post (BCP) has recently opened at the Port of Immingham with NELC’s Commercial Regulatory Team (who amongst other functions deliver the Council’s Port Health responsibilities) assessing thousands of imports each week.
The main function of Port Health is to check incoming and outgoing vessels and relevant cargo to ensure people’s safety and the UK’s biosecurity, by ensuring public, animal and environmental health requirements are met. From one day to the next, teams carry out a number of tasks, dependent on the product.
What makes North East Lincolnshire so special though is that the Council acts as both a port health authority for Grimsby & Immingham ports and an inland authority for the whole borough, one of only a handful of authorities that do. The Ports of Grimsby and Immingham, situated on the South Humber Gateway of the Humber Estuary, are located on the busiest shipping estuary in the UK with approximately 40,000 vessel movements per annum.
At the new BCP based just outside the Port of Immingham (both owned and managed by the UK’s largest port operator, Associated British Ports (ABP)), they inspect a variety of food and feed products from countries all over the world.
The cargo mainly arrives into Immingham by container or refrigerated trailer and, in the case of fishery products, is generally destined for Grimsby cold stores, factories and wholesalers. In terms of fishery product tonnage, Immingham is by far the busiest port in the country, receiving over 200,000 tonnes each year, although the port is also an important route of entry for a huge range of meat, dairy and egg products. Following the UK’s exit from the EU, there has been a need to introduce import checks on EU origin cargo as well as that from the rest of the world, because free movement of goods between the UK and the EU has now ended. Because the vast majority of such products arriving into Immingham are of EU origin, that has led to a massive increase in work for the Commercial Regulatory Team.
As of April 30th, teams began performing documentary, identity and physical checks of all relevant EU imports. 100% of these imports have their documents checked and then a much smaller proportion are directed to the BCP for identity and physical checks. This means any products for human or animal consumption are subject to rigorous testing.
These items can include fresh pork or poultry, cured or frozen meat products, farmed or wild caught fish products, dried meal, pellets and other animal feedstuffs, coming from all over the world. Consignments arrive from the likes of Canada, China and even Vietnam, as well as EU member states carrying cargo sometimes worth in excess of £100,000.
Throughout a week, the team can see over one thousand import notifications via the Government import control system, equating to millions of items every year.
Aside from the Port Health team, the Animal Plant Health Authority (APHA) and Border Force operate from the BCP too. The job of APHA is to inspect plant and plant products that have been imported whilst Border Force checks cargo for illegal products such as guns or drugs, as well as smuggled goods trying to avoid customs duties.
The process
When a consignment arrives at the BCP, teams have often already been provided with a digital copy of the paperwork detailing its contents, country of origin and other important information.
This information determines whether or not it needs a full inspection. If an examination is required, a Port Health Support Officer will be accompanied by either an Official Fish Inspector (OFI) or Official Veterinarian (OV), dependant on goods in question. Official Fish Inspectors are Environmental Health Officers or Senior Food Safety Officers who have additional qualifications and they make decisions on imports of fishery products intended for human consumption, as well has high risk food/feed not of animal origin. Portal Official Veterinarians make decisions on all other products of animal origin, whether or not intended for human consumption.
An identity check involves the product being checked against the paperwork to ensure they correlate, whereas a physical check can involve samples being sent for laboratory analysis, temperature checks or judging fitness to eat through appearance, smell or even taste. If all is satisfactory then the consignment will be cleared to leave the port and delivered to the customer.
However, if the consignment is rejected the team can usually offer a number of options to the importer. They can send it back to the country of origin; the owner can apply for the use to be altered, such as changing from human to animal consumption or the owner can pay for the product to be destroyed.
The team
Officers work a range of shifts throughout a 7-day operational week. These are 6am to 2pmor 12pm to 8pm Monday to Friday or a weekend shift from 8am-4pm in order to be in the best position possible to make decisions on consignments potentially arriving 24/7. The same officers are also involved in providing an export health certification service for local businesses exporting fish and other goods outside the UK from the North East Lincolnshire area.
Speaking about the new BCP, John Clements-Pearce, Export Team Leader, said: “The new facility is much better than our previous BCP. The technology is far more impressive and reliable which allows us to do our job much more efficiently.”
He added: “We have so many products that come through the BCP. People don’t always understand the volume of food or the depth of the examinations we carry out. A lot of work goes into getting these consignments from one place to the other.
“It’s not just about the physical checks though, we also spend a lot of our time checking the documents that come with the cargo. Since May 1st, we have checked over 17,000 documents which equates to just over 800 a week.”
This variation of documents and products is what John enjoys most about his job. “Although it may look like we’re doing the same thing over and over again, each container has a different product that needs different checks carried out. In my opinion, the difference from one consignment to the next is what makes the job so interesting.”
