Securing Borders, Boosting Trade

Defra (Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) is responsible for supporting the nation’s world-class food, farming and fishing industries and protecting the biosecurity of the nation. With the Border Operating Model establishing new certification and inspection requirements for agri-foods, Defra partnered with Kainos to deliver sophisticated digital infrastructure that assesses risks from imports and streamlines border inspections for traders. 

Defra needed an independent digital border inspection system for all agri-food goods and derived products. The EU Exit meant Britain needed to build physical and digital infrastructure for agri-food inspections – one that delivered border security while streamlining import processes for traders. With £23.6bn exports and £47.9bn imports of annual agri-food goods traded between Great Britain and the EU alone, a huge amount was at stake. Defra needed to achieve 2 critical enhancements:  

• Advancing biosecurity at the border 
• Simplifying import processes for traders 

Why Kainos

Kainos previously supported Defra in developing a digital service called IPAFFS (Import of Products, Animal, Food & Feed) to manage imports of products, animals, food and feed. That first launch bridged an immediate gap during the EU Exit transition period, when trade easements were in place.   

This iteration of IPAFFS took its capabilities to new levels. We designed a sophisticated digital service for risk-assessing imports in line with the government Border Target Operating Model 

The Approach 

Advancing biosecurity at the UK border  

The enhanced IPAFFS system needed to be the first line of defence protecting biosecurity and public health. Kainos helped Defra take a technology-first and data-driven approach by developing a risk engine. Drawing on import rules, the engine will assess risks and provide a decision for each import. Then, when a consignment arrives at a port, border teams will easily be able to see if an inspection is required. This ensures the highest-risk goods will be captured and controlled, and will enable Defra to continue phasing in the Border Operating Model's global risking regime into the future. 

Importantly, the engine makes it easy for Defra to manage and monitor risk rules – so it’s future-proof for evolving government policy. It also feeds inspection results back into the system, meaning Defra can evolve rules based on real-world data.  

Simplifying import processes for traders  

Defra, with Kainos, delivered several innovative capabilities to streamline import processes:  

Reducing the burden of manual data entry – Traders complete an Export Health Certificate in the country of origin as well as separate import documentation. Defra worked with EU and non-EU countries to integrate their national Export Health Certificate systems with IPAFFS to generate the necessary import documentation. Sharing data between systems to remove the need for traders to enter the same data into different systems across countries to populate necessary export and import certificates. This saves time while protecting the provenance of goods as they move through various countries for processing and sale. 

Efficiently routing lorry drivers through ports – When traders enter the UK, they coordinate with Defra (for biosecurity) and HMRC (for customs). Integrating HMRC’s detailed vehicle movement data (ferries, lorries, etc) with data on the commodities being imported from IPAFFS, Defra can notify drivers with unified and efficient information about where to go for inspections.  

Centralised import notification management – Through the phases of post-EU Exit policy implementation, traders had to manage different requirements for goods coming from the EU versus the rest of the world. We conducted extensive user research and then implemented consistent user journeys regardless of where goods arrive from. Traders can now use the single portal to manage all relevant consignments.  

The Technology 

IPAFFS has been built using the Microsoft Azure cloud technology stack. By combining an agile development approach with cloud-native platform technologies, including using Azure App Services, the project was able to flex and scale in response to ongoing changes in requirements, and cement in security at all stages of delivery. Kainos, Microsoft and Defra worked in close partnership throughout to ensure the quality of IPAFFS service delivery.

Results 

The project’s core goal was to implement robust new post-EU Exit border control procedures for various animal- and plant-related imports to Britain – as set out in the Government Border Target Operating Model.   

The new procedures aimed to improve biosecurity safeguarding measures and improve efficiency for traders. As a result, this increased confidence in health standards and protected the economic impact to the UK – while optimising operational costs for traders and Defra.