This week I will force a House of Commons vote on the latest instalment of the imposition of the international border separating Northern Ireland from the rest of the country.
This time we are looking at a Pets Border so that when people travel with their pets from one part of the country, Great Britain, to another part, Northern Ireland, they will have to get a ‘Pet Travel Document’, a Pet Passport by another name, as if travelling to a foreign country.
Under the proposed legislation, if you live in England, Wales or Scotland you can only visit Northern Ireland with a dog – including a guide dog – a cat or a ferret if you acquire a Pet Travel Document which is dependent on at least two provisions.
First, you have to demonstrate that your animal has been microchipped.
Second, you have to sign a commitment not to take the animal over the border into the Republic.
That means that even if you are in county Londonderry and feel tempted to drive into county Donegal and take your dog for a walk on the beach, you will not be able do so.
When you cross the EU’s Irish Sea Border you are then subject to documentary and identity checks.
If the competent authorities conducting the checks suspect that someone has not complied with the requirements of the Northern Ireland Pet Travel Scheme, they must send them and their animal to a Sanitary Phytosanitary facility in Northern Ireland.
They must remain there ‘with their pet animal until any non-compliance has been remedied, until they have confirmed compliance or until they are directed otherwise by the competent authority.’
The Regulations also state that if the competent authority which issued the Pet Travel Document is satisfied that on the balance of probabilities the owner has failed to comply with a direction to attend the SPS facility, they may suspend them from the Northern Ireland Pet Travel Scheme.
Why is this happening? The simple answer is that despite the spin, Brexit has not been done yet.
Only part of the UK has been allowed to leave the EU and on the basis that it submits to the indignity of being cut in two by an international customs and Sanitary Phytosanitary border.
In a staggering 300 areas, the laws pertaining to the Northern Ireland side of the border are made for it by the European Parliament and Council of Ministers in which we have no representation.
That this is in some senses worse than being part of the EU has been brought home very graphically by the ‘pet animal’ legislation.
It appears to be free standing, but its purpose is actually to give effect to a piece of EU legislation. While it has the most unwieldy title imaginable, it has the great benefit of being very clear about its broad purpose.
It has the longwinded name of: “Regulation (EU) 2023/1231 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2023 on specific rules relating to the entry into Northern Ireland from other parts of the United Kingdom of certain consignments of retail goods, plants for planting, seed potatoes, machinery and certain vehicles operated for agricultural or forestry purposes, as well as non-commercial movements of certain pet animals into Northern Ireland.”
The fascinating thing about this piece of legislation, which obviously extends far beyond pets, is that it was made by the 27 member states of the EU and yet it does not pertain to the government of any of those countries, nor does it relate just to the government of Northern Ireland.
Made by the EU two years after we were supposed to have left, the legislation pertains wholly to the government of the United Kingdom and what the EU is prepared to allow to pass from one part of it, Great Britain, to another part of it, Northern Ireland, and how.
The legislation governing the movement of pets within our own country is set out in Article 12. Rather than taking back control, EU Regulation 1231 makes it clear that in some important respects we are still giving it away.
While the title is clear, the legislation itself is less than transparent. The proposed law says: ‘When applying for a pet travel document, the owner or authorised person must provide the information required in implementing acts adopted under Article 12(4) of the SPS Regulation and sign a declaration.’
What information is that?
LATEST OPINION FROM MEMBERSHIP:
The striking thing about Article 12(4) is that instead of simply repeating what the Government has told us, namely that you must demonstrate that the dog is microchipped and sign a declaration saying you will not cross into the Republic, the Commission to empowered to make what ever requirements it wishes.
There is nothing to say that it will not introduce new requirements which might require additional information such that the Pet Travel Documents we have been told will last for life are super ceded.
The United Kingdom cannot have a future without self-respect, and it cannot have self-respect if we agree to acquiesce with the indignities upon which the EU is insisting.
We need to get our country back. To this end I am very clear that in addition to saying ‘no’ to demeaning legislation, undermining our integrity, it is imperative to bring forward a means of managing the UK-ROI land border (rather than an Irish Sea Border) without requiring any hard border infrastructure.
It is for this reason that I am delighted to be introducing my Mutual Enforcement Private Members Bill for its Second Reading on 6th December which provides a way of protecting the integrity of the EU Single Market for goods, and the UK single market for goods without disenfranchising 1.9 million people or disrespecting the territorial integrity of the UK.