As communicated previously, the GB Plant Health Service introduced legislation for their routine update to plant health import requirements.

Previously, under the assimilated law, Regulation (EU) 2019/2072, Annex 7, entries 52-54 detailed that the specific import requirements only applied to plants of Picea over 3m in height.

Unfortunately, The Phytosanitary Conditions (Amendment) Regulations 2024 unintentionally amended this by introducing new entries that apply to plants of all sizes of Picea. Entry 54A of Annex 7 applies to plants from any third country, other than Norway, and entry 54B applies to Norway only. These entries will come into force on 31 May 2024.

This is an error that will be corrected in the next update planned for Autumn 2024 by limiting both entries to plants over 3 m once again. However, until the correction is made, plants under 3m in height do not need to meet the requirements set out in Annex 7, point 54A or 54B.