The introduction of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) controls on EU imports has resulted in new costs to fund the operation of the government-run border control post (BCP) facility in Sevington, Kent. This means the government is responsible for setting charges on imports coming into Great Britain that are eligible for SPS checks at the Sevington BCP facility, which serves the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel. This is known as the common user charge.

The estimated operating costs for Sevington BCP are £23.06 million from 30 April 2024 to 29 April 2025. Defra used this figure to calculate the common user charge rates in 2023 for the year ending 29 April 2025 in order to achieve full cost recovery for 12 months of implementation from 30 April 2024.

The final operating costs of Sevington BCP will be published in April 2025, when Defra will confirm the common user charge rates for 2025 to 2026. This figure may be different to the estimated cost, as it will reflect the full year of actual expenditure.

The legal basis for charging is articles 79 to 84 of the assimilated regulation (EU) 2017/625 (Official Controls Regulation), which allow for the collection of costs of official controls and costs connected with official controls.

Defra calculated the estimated annual operating costs for Sevington BCP and divided this by the estimated annual number of SPS commodity lines that enter Great Britain through the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel.

This approach is in line with HM Treasury guidance on managing public money. This makes it possible to set appropriate charge rates that recover the full cost of all chargeable and permitted activities.

The BCP operating costs include:

• business rates
• costs associated with administering the charge
• costs associated with payment collection
• maintenance costs
• sewerage costs
• site operator costs
• site management costs
• utilities costs