Brexit border IT outages delay import of perishable items to UK by up to 20 hours

Lorries carrying meat, cheese and cut flowers held up by new checks, with retailers rejecting some orders

Lorries carrying perishable food and plants from the EU are being held for up to 20 hours at the UK’s busiest Brexit border post as failures with the government’s IT systems delay imports entering Britain.

Businesses have described the government’s new border control checks as a “disaster” after IT outages led to lorries carrying meat, cheese and cut flowers being held for long periods, reducing the shelf life of their goods and prompting retailers to reject some orders.

The worst disruption was last weekend, with dozens of lorries being held at the government’s control post serving Dover and the Channel tunnel for periods of between eight and 20 hours after the IT system that registers goods went down.

Lorries carrying perishable food and plants from the EU are being held for up to 20 hours at the UK’s busiest Brexit border post as failures with the government’s IT systems delay imports entering Britain.

Businesses have described the government’s new border control checks as a “disaster” after IT outages led to lorries carrying meat, cheese and cut flowers being held for long periods, reducing the shelf life of their goods and prompting retailers to reject some orders.

The worst disruption was last weekend, with dozens of lorries being held at the government’s control post serving Dover and the Channel tunnel for periods of between eight and 20 hours after the IT system that registers goods went down.

A representative of a company that sends 70 lorries a week to the UK, said it had seen 40 vehicles sent to Sevington last week for document checks, with the hold-ups leading to some customers rejecting deliveries.

He said: “We have fresh products from Poland and eastern Europe, which can take two to three days to transport to the UK. If there is another delay of a day or two, it’s really too late to sell them to final customers.”

Traders said this was the latest in a list of problems with the government’s IT systems since the border checks were brought in on 30 April, with the ALVS being down on two other occasions.

Nigel Jenney, the chief executive of the Fresh Produce Consortium, said: “There’s been several incidents like this in the last two weeks, and several much more minor issues. There is a huge concern factor. This is causing not just huge disruption, but it’s a huge cost for the sector.”

A Defra spokesperson said: “A power outage over the weekend affected one of the systems required to process imports. For the majority of vehicles at the border there were no significant delays, but we immediately activated contingency arrangements for affected vehicles, working alongside HMRC and Border Force.

“We are working at pace to resolve the issue and expect that systems will be returning to normal functioning soon. Since the introduction of checks, our teams have been working closely with traders to ensure checks are completed efficiently and swiftly.”