Certain cut flowers from the EU are classified as medium risk A goods and therefore require a Phytosanitary certificate and pre-notification from EU Member states. In December 2025 a review was carried out by the Import Threats and Horizon Scanning Group, a subgroup of the UK Plant Health Risk Group on five species listed as medium risk A:

• Chrysanthemums
• Dianthus sp. 
• Gypsophila sp. 
• Orchidaceae  
• Solidago sp.

These cut flowers are currently subject to an inspection frequency of 3% when imported from the EU, but based on a good level of compliance for Dianthus sp., Gypsophila sp., Orchidaceae and Solidago sp. this will be reduced to 1%.  Fees for import inspections on these goods will also be reduced inline with this change. The 1% inspection level reflects that these species have a known risk of having quarantine pests associated with them, but good compliance when imported from the EU has allowed reduction to this level. The case for chrysanthemum was less clear, and the review of this species is ongoing.

These changes will start on Monday 19th January 2026.

However, importers should be aware that if these cut flowers are part of a groupage load and other commodities within that lorry are selected for a physical inspection, the EU cut flowers won’t be released until the other consignments are inspected.