{"id":693815,"date":"2026-01-13T19:59:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T19:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/693815\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T19:59:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T19:59:12","slug":"dealing-with-post-brexit-paperwork-pure-hell-shipping-head-tells-mps-brexit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/693815\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealing with post-Brexit paperwork \u2018pure hell\u2019, shipping head tells MPs | Brexit"},"content":{"rendered":"

British vets have been forced to chase lorries down the motorway on their way to Dover due to the \u201cpure hell\u201d of Brexit<\/a> paperwork needed by inspectors in Calais, MPs have been told.<\/p>\n

Toby Ovens of Broughton Transport told the business and trade committee that Brexit has been a costly and logistic nightmare, and hopes of a reset with the EU represented \u201clight at the end of the tunnel\u201d.<\/p>\n

Brandishing a wad of paperwork with 26 stamps compared with one sheet needed before Brexit, Ovens criticised the post-Brexit bureaucracy he faced when shipping lamb and beef to the continent.<\/p>\n

\"ShippingShipping head tells MPs of post-Brexit bureaucracy \u2013 video<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had vets chasing lorries down the M4 because they have suddenly realised they didn\u2019t put the stamp in the right place on a piece of paper.\u201d<\/p>\n

His worst experience was a truck full of frozen meat held in Calais for 27 days due to a \u201cpaperwork error\u201d. He ended up having to charge his customer \u00a316,000 to have drivers sit with the refrigerated truck in Calais for the month.<\/p>\n

He said trucks were being detained at Calais before Christmas because inspectors would not accept new UK paperwork for BSE clearance.<\/p>\n

In the end they rerouted one lorry in Chippenham for a meeting with a vet who handed over a bundle of new BSE certificates to take to Calais for the trucks being detained in the port.<\/p>\n

The first-hand accounts confirm the pre-Brexit warnings of exporters, hauliers and small businesses who could not afford the paperwork.<\/p>\n

Ovens\u2019 remarks come as Brussels negotiators prepare for their first meeting over a new veterinary agreement with the EU in London next week, aimed at wiping out Brexit red tape.<\/p>\n

Liam Byrne, chair of the committee, opened the evidence session by telling witnesses that red tape was costing the UK an extra \u00a38.4bn.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoods trade is down 18% on five years ago, food and drink down 24%,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Talks on removing the red tape on goods and drink exports begin in London next week, with a second meeting scheduled for Brussels the following week as both sides try and hammer out a sanitary and phytosanitary agreement.<\/p>\n

Tom Bradshaw, president of the National Farmers\u2019 Union, highlighted technical challenges in getting a deal where approaches to farming have already diversified.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cOat farmers are currently allowed to use four mycotoxins that are allowed in the UK but not yet in the EU. Does this require a transition agreement?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sean McGuire, director for Europe<\/a> at the Confederation of British Industry, said the EU has been \u201cvery very lukewarm\u201d on other issues such as mutual recognition of professional qualifications such as architecture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British vets have been forced to chase lorries down the motorway on their way to Dover due to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-693815","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115889567471933332","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}