Defra’s PEACH automatic certification process for imported fruit and vegetables was down through Christmas, leaving furious importers alleging no-one could be bothered to go in and reset it.
Importers were forced to bring in and pay for additional staff during the holidays, to produce manually certificates for imported goods.
Mike Parr, of West London-based Perishable Movements, told FPJ he has now invoiced Defra for the cost of covering its error. “The system was down throughout Christmas and then miraculously got fixed the day after the [New Year] holiday,” he said. “It could and should have been done a lot sooner. If we make a mistake, we are expected to pay for it, but no-one at Defra was willing to pick up the phone and I don’t expect my invoice will be paid.”
A Defra insider said the problem was caused by a fire, and that the ministry is “ashamed” of the incident, but denied that the problem was down to a lack of staffing at the department. He said: “This was all caused by a major computer flaw in Guildford. There were a few issues which all happened at the same time, and it’s just typical that it happened at Christmas.”
Hard questions are being asked of the IT support organisation. Why, for instance, did it take until January 3 to restore the system? But the majority of effort is now being focused on ensuring such an incident will not happen again.
“As far as I’m aware it was a serious error, but we’re now looking at what we can do to prevent that from happening again and to make sure that we have a back-up system to resolve such issues in the future. It’s something we’re quite ashamed of, so to speak,” the insider said.
Parr added that he is able to send produce into Belgium with no charges, while the “over-zealous” UK government has seized on another opportunity to boost its coffers. “The inspection and certification systems are just another tax on importers - Defra has created a money-making machine. We are being asked to pay for phytosanitary inspections when all that they are doing is downloading information from a computer,” he said.
Another importer said: “It did cause problems and a lot of extra work at a time when there are not a lot of extra people around to handle it. It has happened before and it will happen again, although this was the longest it’s ever been down. We aren’t planning on complaining to Defra, what’s the point? If it was still ongoing then that would be a different matter.”
Defra told FPJ: “We have apologised to the traders concerned for the inconvenience caused by the delay in restoring the system. This incident has led us to review our contingency arrangements and a number of actions are being taken to ensure a swift response to any future difficulties of this kind.”
The ministry has received a number of written complaints, some of which are looking for recompense for the additional costs incurred. “We are considering these requests, which have only just been received,” added a spokesperson
