Nazir Afzal jokes MPs could aid HGV crisis as second job

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The ensuing chaos has caught ordinary Britons, many of whom continue to fight supply chain issues. Much of that pressure has landed on HGV operators who, due to Brexit, face a raft of new barriers and worker shortfall. Brussels plans to target seaports with “imminent” rule changes that could soon see their jobs complicated.

The proposed rules, which come into effect in April, would see the bloc drop current entry requirements and adapt a more complex arrangement.

At present, carriers can enter the country and drop off their goods following a straightforward passport check.

But from April, proposals would see them have to navigate new barriers.

Next year, HGV drivers hoping to enter the passport-free Schengen area must pass biometric checks and French police.

Biometric checks

Biometrics refers to biological measurements taken that organisations can use to identify people.

Examples include fingerprints and facial recognition technology currently employed at some passport gates.

EU authorities currently implement these using electronic gates (otherwise known as E-gates).

Electronic gates

People will usually encounter E-gates following a flight into EU countries.

These scan people’s faces to verify their identity before allowing them out of the airport.

While they usually help speed up entry, officials fear they will have the opposite effect on HGVs entering the EU.

Meeting these requirements would force Dover – which handles approximately a third of the UK’s total trade activity with the EU – to install new infrastructure.

Per an agreement with Paris, French authorities would then carry out checks on British soil.

Drivers would need to exit their vehicle to progress through new checkpoints, causing queues.

Kent MPs warned in a letter that there was a danger of constant “large scale traffic disruption” in Kent.

Criticising the EU plans, they warned disruption would rival that caused if France closed its border.

Ultimately, the group added, the checks were more at home with airports than seaports.

The check clampdown comes as Lord Frost warns the UK must make it a “national necessity” to walk away from EU rules.

He told attendees of the Centre for Policy Studies conference that the UK’s future lies in “divergence” from Brussels.

He also took the opportunity to warn against the “European social model”.

Lord Frost said: “When we discuss trade in this country, we must not forget that our most urgent and pressing problem – an issue of the highest national interest – is to make sure we can trade freely within our own country.

“I don’t think that’s too much to ask, and that’s where we need to get to one way or another.”

He added: “We can’t carry on as we were before. If, after Brexit, all we do is import the European social model, we will not succeed.”

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