Animal Products (Control of Personal Importation) (Scotland) Order 2025: equality impact assessment results

The Scope of the EQIA

The Order impacts the public generally, including those with protected characteristics, and includes mitigations specifically intended to advance equality of opportunity for the protected characteristics of age and disability or sex (and to the extent that it may be more likely that women will be the primary carers of infants), without compromising the policy objective of preventing the introduction of animal disease.

Key Findings

Personal imports pose a distinct risk to UK biosecurity owing to them being exempt from commercial controls such as veterinary oversight over production and slaughter, food safety requirements, health certification (including assurances that they originate from disease free areas) and BCP checks.

We are seeing an unprecedented number of exotic animal disease outbreaks across the EU at present. GB currently enjoys the benefits of freedom from several animal diseases that are present in the EU (such as Classical and African swine fevers, Equine Infectious Anaemia, West Nile Fever, Newcastle disease, certain Bluetongue serotypes). This list has grown significantly over the last few years with around ten notifiable diseases currently circulating^[1], as well as a number of non-notifiable diseases that we do not have in the UK.

FMD remains a key concern, with two unrelated outbreaks in the EU this year affecting three Member States, with human-mediated transmission a likely pathway for both. Outbreaks of PPR and SPGP are ongoing, with over 500 cases of SPGP reported so far in 2025 and both diseases spreading to previously unaffected Member States.

The EU border between Greece/Bulgaria and Türkiye poses a particularly high disease risk. Türkiye is a popular travel destination, and an ongoing FMD outbreak there is being closely monitored by Defra. Recent incursions of PPR and SPGP into the EU may have also originated in Türkiye.

No formal public consultation was undertaken in relation to this instrument. The UK Government, Scottish and Welsh Governments are in agreement that these measures are necessary to protect animal health in Great Britain. Separate instruments are being introduced in England and Wales. Guidance was issued on GOV.UK on the prohibition of imports of certain ruminant and porcine products intended for personal consumption or use into Scotland from the EU single market area when it was introduced via safeguard measures implemented under TARP(S). Guidance for the public is available on the GOV.UK website.

Section 10 of the Animal Health Act 1981 allows Scottish Ministers to use Orders to make such provision as they think fit for the purpose of preventing the introduction or spreading of disease into Scotland through the importation of animal products.

As this is a GB-wide policy being applied, and one which is capable of ongoing adjustment to meet emerging circumstances, a reasonably “light touch” assessment was required, drawing on key sources, i.e. UK Office for SPS Trade Assurance Risk Assessments which were drawn up when the bans were originally brought in.

It is considered there are neutral impacts for each protected characteristic under each of the three Public Sector Equality Duties (PSED) needs.