Check whether plants or plant products you import from the EU (excluding Ireland), Liechtenstein, or Switzerland are categorised as high, medium or low risk
Updated: April 2024
From 30 April, changes to border checks will come into force for high-risk and medium-risk plants and plant products. You can read our guidance to learn more.
Plant and plant products imported from the EU to Great Britain are categorised into high, medium and low categories, unless they are unregulated.
Plant health controls apply to imports of high and medium risk plants and plant products.
Low risk and unregulated plants and plant products will continue to be exempt from plant health controls.
If your products are high risk or medium risk:
- Goods must be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate (PC)
- Good must be pre-notified via IPAFFS
- Goods will be subject to Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) checks (documentary, identity, physical) at a Border Control Points (BCP) or Control Point (CP)
Note: Medium risk fruit and vegetables imported from the EU will continue to be temporarily treated as low risk. The assessment of plant health risk is ongoing and risk categorisations may change.
Further guidance on EU risk categories can be found here.
Risk categorisation for goods from non-EU countries can be found here.