Traders moving organic products to Northern Ireland are now eligible for support following the expansion of a scheme designed to ease the flow of agri-food goods from Great Britain, Defra has announced today.

The Movement Assistance Scheme means traders do not need to pay certain certification costs for moving agri-food goods, with the costs incurred by those certifying the products – now including organic control bodies – reimbursed by government up to a set amount.

The scheme also includes a dedicated helpline for general enquiries and together these measures are making it easier to move agri-food goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. During January, over 100 organisations signed to up to the scheme, with the costs of over 4,000 export health certificates covered.

Farming, Fisheries and Food Minister Victoria Prentis said:

We want to ensure that people in Northern Ireland can continue to enjoy a wide range of organic products and that the process of getting these goods to them is as smooth as possible for traders.

Including the cost of certification for organic agri-food goods in the Movement Assistance Scheme minimises the impact of the new requirements for traders and means there will still be a variety of choice for consumers.

Since 1 January 2021, there have been new requirements for inspection and certification when moving agri-food and similar goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

This includes meeting new sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) requirements given that the island of Ireland is treated as a single epidemiological unit. These SPS requirements include Export Health Certificates and Phytosanitary certificates for specific agri-food goods.

Authorised traders, such as supermarkets and their trusted suppliers, currently benefit from a grace period from certification requirements for products of animal origin, composite products, food and feed of non-animal origin and plants and plant products as well as organic products.

The Movement Assistance Scheme will cover the cost of Organic Certificate of Inspections. It does not currently cover the costs for getting certified as an organic exporter, though the Government is continuing to monitor the performance of the scheme to determine what further support may be required.

Guidance on the new scheme and moving agri-food goods to and from Northern Ireland is available.

If you would like further information on moving agri-food goods from GB to NI, please contact the Movement Assistance Scheme (MAS) helpline on 0330 0416 580. MAS can help you by offering support and advice, and information around GB to NI processes and policy. The helpline is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm (excluding bank holidays).

Traders who have queries relating to moving organic products from GB to NI can also contact their control body for advice.

The Secretary of State Grant Shapps has today (2 March 2021) chaired the first meeting of the new Global Travel Taskforce to set out a plan for restarting international travel in a safe and sustainable way.

Several government departments, industry bodies, transport operators and travel agencies met to discuss the work of the taskforce and how international travel can be re-opened safely.

This includes developing a new risk-based framework to facilitate international travel, using the suite of measures the government already has in place, such as testing and isolation, and the recommendations from the first Global Travel Taskforce last year.

They will also look at how existing measures, such as the government’s testing and isolation schemes, could be used to facilitate travel while managing the risk of imported cases and ‘variants of concern’.

It will also take place in parallel and be closely integrated with the review into COVID-status certification led by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

The taskforce will provide a report to the Prime Minister on 12 April, which will be used to help government determine when and how to resume safe international travel no earlier than 17 May 2021.

The decision on when international travel can resume will be dependent on:

• the global and domestic epidemiological picture
• the prevalence and location of any ‘variants of concern’
• the progress of vaccine rollouts here and abroad
• what more the government has learned about the efficacy of vaccines on variants, and the impact on transmission, hospitalisation and deaths

All measures will be kept under review, and people should continue to follow national restrictions for England introduced on 6 January 2021, meaning everyone must stay at home unless travelling for a very limited set of reasons.

Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps said:

The UK’s leading vaccine rollout has created a wave of optimism and, as a result, the Global Travel Taskforce is charged with exploring safe and secure ways to restart international travel when the time is right.

By planning carefully considered steps, we will protect the excellent progress made through our vaccine and advanced testing programme, whilst ensuring we are ready to kick-start our travel sector when current travel restrictions can be lifted.

We will not only consider the progress of our world-beating domestic vaccine programme but also need to review where destination countries have got to with both vaccine and testing capabilities.

The government has already put in place a range of tough measures to minimise the risk of COVID-19 transmission at the border, including the:

All international arrivals must also take a COVID-19 test on both day 2 and day 8 of their self-isolation period – with genome sequencing included within the cost of the testing bundle.

Passengers arriving from ‘non-red list’ countries still have the option to pay for a private test and shorten their self-isolation period by up to half through Test to Release, on receipt of a negative COVID-19 result.

A pharmacist from Sutton Coldfield was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court today to twelve months imprisonment for selling hundreds of thousands of doses of addictive prescription drugs onto the black market. The medicines were sold at huge profit during 2016 and 2017. The value of these pills on the black market is estimated at over £1 million.

Balkeet Singh Khaira, 36, worked at his mother’s pharmacy in West Bromwich and made over £59,000 from the Class C drugs, which are prescribed for pain relief and to treat conditions such as anxiety and insomnia.

Following an investigation led by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), investigators and partners from West Midlands Police, visited the pharmacy. Records found on the premises showed that of hundreds of thousands of doses of diazepam, nitrazepam, tramadol, zolpidem and zopiclone purchased from wholesalers, only a small percentage had been dispensed against prescription. This left more than 800,000 pills unaccounted for that Khaira later admitted he had sold to drug dealers.

The investigation began following allegations that the pharmacy was selling large quantities of prescription-only medicine without a prescription. When contacted about the investigation by the General Pharmaceutical Council, Khaira pretended to be his mother and said he was “shocked and blindsided” by the accusations. He then went on provide falsified evidence intended to disprove the allegations.

While Khaira has admitted to the charges, he claims that after initially making a voluntary sale to drug dealers he was then forced to sell further medicines after he was threatened outside of his pharmacy. He has refused to provide any information on who these people were or who he sold to.

Khaira was suspended from the General Pharmaceutical Council’s pharmacist register under an interim order, meaning that he was unable to practice while waiting for the case to come to court.

His mother, whose pharmacy he worked at, was not involved in any of the criminal activity.

Grant Powell, the MHRA Enforcement officer leading the case, said:

“It is a serious criminal offence to sell controlled, unlicensed or prescription-only medicines in this way.

“Anyone who sells medicines illegally could be exploiting vulnerable people and clearly has no regard for their health or welfare. Prescription only medicines are potent and should only be taken under medical supervision.

“We work closely with regulatory and law enforcement partners to identify and prosecute those involved.

“If you think you have been offered a medicine illegally, or have any information about suspected or known illegal trading in medicines, please contact the MHRA.”

Khaira pleaded guilty to 5 counts of supplying controlled class C drugs at Birmingham Crown Court on 09/02/2021.

Notes to Editor

Balkeet Singh Khaira (Date of birth: 06/03/1983) is from All Saints Drive, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, B74 4AG and worked at Khaira Care Limited, trading as “Khaira Pharmacy” based at 6A High Street, West Bromwich, B70 6JX.

He qualified as a pharmacist in 2008 and was working in the family business.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is responsible for regulating all medicines and medical devices in the UK. All our work is underpinned by robust and fact-based judgements to ensure that the benefits justify any risks.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (‘the agency’) has three centres. The MHRA, the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC) and the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD). The agency is an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care.

If you think you’ve been offered a medicine illegally or have any information about suspected or known illegal dealings with medicines, please contact us, the MHRA, on 020 3080 6330 (weekdays 9am to 5pm) or out-of-hours on 07795 825 727. Or email us at casereferrals@mhra.gov.uk