The Official Controls (Plant Health) and Phytosanitary Conditions (Amendment) Regulations 2025

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend Regulation (EU) 2017/625 on official controls and other official activities performed to ensure the application of food and feed law, rules on animal health and welfare, plant health and plant protection products (“the Official Controls Regulation”), Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1014 to lay down detailed rules on minimum requirements for border control posts, including inspection centres, and for the format, categories and abbreviations to use for listing border control posts and control points (“the BCP Minimum Requirements Regulation”), Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2072 establishing uniform conditions for the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2016/2031 of the European Parliament and the Council, as regards protective measures against pests of plants (“the Phytosanitary Conditions Regulation”) and the Plant Health (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 (S.I. 2020/1482).

Part 2 amends Annex 6 to the Official Controls Regulation to update the list of goods (specific fruit and vegetables) that are exempt from the requirement for pre-notification when those goods are imported into Great Britain from an EU Member State, Liechtenstein or Switzerland as a result of the amendments made in Regulation 11.

Part 3 amends the BCP Minimum Requirements Regulation to define large plants and plant products and other large objects and inserts new Article 6A to provide the additional requirements for unloading areas and inspection areas for these goods.

Part 4 amends the Phytosanitary Conditions Regulation. Regulations 5 and 6 update the list of quarantine pests in Annex 2 and the list of provisional GB quarantine pests in Annex 2A. Heterobasidion irregulare is removed from the provisional list and added to the list of quarantine pests. Diaporthe phaseolorum var. sojae is moved from the category “Bacteria” into the category “Fungi and oomycetes”. Various pest names are amended to ensure those pests are identified by their most up to date name.

Regulations 7 and 8 update the names of various pests in the list of regulated non-quarantine pests and their respective plants and the list of measures to prevent the presence of regulated non-quarantine pests on specific plants to ensure consistency with internationally recognised names.

Regulations 9 and 10 update the names of pests in Annexes 7 and 8 to ensure consistency with internationally recognised names. Regulation 9 also adds in a requirement in Annex 7 for certain imported plants for planting to have been grown in a registered place of production. It adds additional requirements to prevent the spread of Popillia japonica and permits Capsicum plants where they are produced from untested seeds when intended for final users not involved in plant production. The import requirements for Tobacco streak virus black raspberry latent strain, Raspberry leaf curl virus and Cherry rasp leaf virus are clarified. Entries are added regarding products from Abies spp., Calocedrus decurrens, Juniperus spp., Larix spp., Picea spp., Pinus spp., Pseudotsuga menziesii, and Thuja spp. to prevent the spread of Heterobasidion irregulare.

Regulation 11 updates the lists in Annex 11 in respect of phytosanitary certificate requirements to re-categorise certain fruits and vegetables arriving from the EU and Switzerland and, in the case of asparagus, Liechtenstein. Wood of “Pinales” is reclassified as “Pinopsida” to ensure consistency with the internationally recognised name for conifers.

Regulation 12 updates the list of plants, plant products and other objects for which UK Plant passports are required to ensure consistency with the internationally recognised name for conifers.

Part 5 amends the Plant Health (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 in respect of exemptions from the requirement for plant health certification following amendments to the Phytosanitary Conditions Regulation.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen.