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BETA Your feedback will help us improve the UK Plant Health Information Portal

Accessibility Statement

Last updated on: 25 September 2026

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This accessibility statement applies to the UK Plant Health Information Portal website of the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra).

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible. For example:

  • some images do not have good alternative text
  • many documents are in PDF format and are not accessible
  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • there is no way to skip past the navigation, to the main content, using the keyboard

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format, contact us at plantpestrisks@defra.gov.uk and tell us:

  • the web address (URL) of the content
  • your name and email address
  • the format you need, for example, audio CD, braille, BSL or large print, accessible PDF

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 15 working days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact: plantpestrisks@defra.gov.uk.

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Defra is committed to making the UK Plant Health Information Portal accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).

There is no direct access to the primary content, using the keyboard. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks.

Some content does not provide sufficient contrast between text and its background so that it can be read by people with moderately low vision. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) and 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast

Labels for the search form inputs are not in place as required to help users to understand what input data is expected. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.3.2: Labels or Instructions

We plan to address these issues by the end of December 2020. When we publish new content we’ll make sure this meets accessibility standards.

Some of our documents are published in unstructured PDF. Headings, list items and paragraphs may not be recognised by a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (info and relationships).

When we publish new documents we aim to make sure they are accessible.

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards. For example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader.

Some types of documents are exempt from the regulations, so we do not currently have any plans to make them accessible. If you need to access information in one of these document types, you can contact us and ask for an alternative format.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We plan to fix issues according to the timescales shown above.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 22nd September 2020. It was last reviewed on 22nd September 2020.

This website was last tested on 11th September 2020. The test was carried out by Fera Science Ltd.