Plant Health Exports Audited Trader Scheme (PHEATS): consultation analysis

Proposal

The proposal is for Scottish low-risk produce exporters to join PHEATS on the same terms and conditions as exporters in England and Wales. However, working alongside DEFRA, the SG has introduced enhanced measures designed to increase impartial inspecting practices and to elevate awareness of impartiality issues to reduce conflicts of interest. This is especially important when the SG devolves the power to inspect to individuals in a business. Impartiality and conflict of interest online training will be conducted through completing a module and a test.

The SG wanted to understand the impact the prospective auditing fees for the initial site visit and ongoing auditing fees, and the impact these would have on an exporters’ finances. This is alongside whether PHEATS would be useful to Scottish low-risk produce exporters in general. The SG was also interested to hear any feedback that exporters had that we had not considered.