New regulations to track the import of oak, ash, sweet chestnut and plane trees from countries within the EU came into force last week. They will allow plant health inspectors to target their inspections and to track saplings if there are any suspicions that they carry a pest or disease.
The controls mean that, as with trees entering from outside the EU, importers will need to tell the UK’s plant health authorities the species, where they are from and where they are going. This will allow inspectors to judge the level of risk and whether testing is needed. Single market rules prevented these measures.
"This will also improve our evidence base on the amount of imports of these trees and our understanding of the levels of risk involved, with a view to preventing future threats to our trees from pests and diseases," said chief plant health officer Martin Ward.
It is the latest measure to protect native trees from the pests and diseases. Recommendations include a risk register being developed for tree health and an expert system to provide quick intelligence on tree and plant health biosecurity.
Defra said the move imposes minimum additional obligations estimated from one hour per year for a small business to between five and eight hours for a large importer.