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It is a requirement that Suffolk Coastal Port Health Authority applies fees and charges for the work it carries out.
If you are going to have to make payments to us in the future, please see the below for information on setting up a finance account with us and best ways to make payments.
In preparation for the BTOM going live on 30th April we strongly advise you to set up a PHILIS account in advance to ensure your trade isn’t delayed.
Finance Accounts
We have an internal system called PHILIS that holds your financial information including any payments made to us and also any debits taken from the account.
Setting up an account
If you would like to set up an account with us please email port.health@scpha.gov.uk advising you would like to set up a finance account and providing the below information.
Once we have confirmed your account is active we can start receiving payments and allocating funds to case work carried out.
How to make payments
We can receive payments via BACS, CHAPS or Credit/Debit Card Payments. We will provide our bank details once you have contacted us to set up your account.
For a card payment please use the East Suffolk Council online payments which can be found here;
Please select either Port Health Low Risk Import Charges or Port Health Agent Top Up Only
Important Information
It is important to note that we will not add funds to your PHILIS account until they show on Lloyds Bank Account. We will access this multiple times a day and allocate as soon as we see the funds have hit our bank account – This means even if you make a same day payment the funds may not be allocated to your PHILIS account until the next working day.
BACS payments can take up to three working days to clear, these wont be allocated until cleared and shown on our account.
Organisations who have high volume or regular trade with us tend to adopt a strategy of making a lump payment covering the anticipated weekly expenses, ensuring your finance account is in surplus. We can also put an account alert amount on your account where we will email you if the funds in your account have gone below a certain level.
Account Statements
We will email the account contact email address every time we allocated funds to your account, this will include the new account balance.
When funds are drawn from the account we will email once a transaction is made. This will include the amount taken, the consignment it relates to and information on the work carried out and the remaining account balance.
If there are no funds in your account for us to draw from we will email you an insufficient funds email advising the amount we want to draw, the consignment it relates to and the work carried out. Please be aware we do not send invoices.
Each month we will send a fully itemised statement to your contact email address. This will cover all the previous months transactions, both credits and debits.
Legislation
The requirements for the application of fees and charges are set out within The Retained EU Regulations (Regulation (EU) 2017/625, known as OCR) as amended by “Official Control (Animal, Feed and Food, Plant Health) (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/1481)”
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2017/625/contents
Our 2024/25 fees and charges can be found here: https://www.porthealth.uk/fees/
Stay informed about the latest Port Health news by registering at: https://www.porthealth.uk/contact/
HM Government helplines and online forum details can be found here.
Port Health inspection charges are calculated annually on a cost recovery basis.
This means that the charges represent the cost of overheads plus third party costs, including staff, office space and other equipment, plus the cost of any materials needed.
For many products the cost of the sample varies depending on size and the nature of the analysis.
Samples that appear unsatisfactory will be subject to confirmatory testing to establish exact levels which will increase the cost.
The retained EU Regulations (Regulation (EU) 2017/625, known as OCR) as amended by “Official Control (Animal, Feed and Food, Plant Health) (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/1481)” set out the requirements for the application of fees and charges.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2017/625/contents
We continually monitor our activities to check that we are providing a good service to our stakeholders. We continue to develop new ways of working to streamline our service delivery by reviewing our working practices and adopting IT and mobile working solutions. It is anticipated that this will ensure that our operating costs, and hence charges, are kept to a minimum in the future.
For guidance on managing your finance accounts, including setting up a new account, please click here.
Online payments can be made here.
All imported products (Including Medium and High Risk) | Charge |
Consignments up to 6 tonnes are subject to a minimum charge of | £61.68 |
Additional tonnage between 7 – 46 tonnes @ | £10.23 per tonne |
For consignments over 46 tonnes the maximum charge is | £469.05 |
| Low Risk POAO consignments are £10 |
Charges for POAO imports are based on the gross weight of the product rounded up to the next full tonne.
There are two levels of charge, a standard charge which applies to the majority of imported products and one that applies to those from New Zealand, which is reduced to reflect the lower amount of work that we carry out in respect of these imports as a result of an Equivalence Agreement between the UK and New Zealand.
The charges are:
All imported products (Including Medium and High Risk) | Charge |
Consignments up to 6 tonnes are subject to a minimum charge of | £61.68 |
Additional tonnage between 7 – 46 tonnes @ | £10.23 per tonne |
For consignments over 46 tonnes the maximum charge is | £469.05 |
| Low Risk POAO consignments are £10
|
|
For products which transit through the community | Charge |
Minimum fee of (£33.70 + £23.60 + £23.60) | £80.90 |
Increasing by, per quarter of an hour for every member of | £23.60 |
All products of Animal Origin from New Zealand | Charge |
Consignments up to 6 tonnes are subject to a minimum charge of | £47.84 |
Additional tonnage between 7 – 46 tonnes @ | £7.82 per tonne |
For consignments over 46 tonnes the maximum charge is | £364.04 |
Other Administration charges for CHED-P’s
Where Parent and Daughter CHEDs are required to be submitted there will be an additional charge of £54.16 per daughter CHED in addition to the parent CHED charge.
Other administration charges for CHED-Ps.
Additional charges for statutory sampling will be made as required.
Activity | Charge |
Document Check | £64.98 |
Sampling – Less than 10 sub samples | £88.46 + analytical cost |
Sampling – 10-59 sub samples | £119.74 + analytical cost |
Sampling – 60 or more sub samples | £161.86 + analytical cost |
A sub sample is the number of units that the legislation requires to be sampled to make up a sample that is representative of the whole consignment. Some contaminants, like aflatoxin, are not usually evenly spread throughout the consignment and a large number of incremental samples are required by the legislation. These samples take longer, so the charge is higher.
Where Parent and Daughter CHEDs are required to be submitted there will be an additional charge of £54.16 per daughter CHED in addition to the parent CHED charge.
Non-compliant consignment
£145.05
Activity | Charge |
Document Check (CHED-D Document check fee) | £64.98 |
Sampling (exc. analysis) | £119.74 |
Analytical Cost – Assigned by lab | |
Non-compliant consignment £145.05 |
Document Check
Due to the additional work in checking and handling multiple documents charges have been introduced based on the number of analytical certificates that accompany the Declaration. The sliding scale of charges will be applied.
Number of Analytical Certificates | Charge |
1-5 | £55.66 |
6-10 | £74.31 |
11-20 | £102.29 |
21+ | £130.58 |
Identity, physical checks and sampling
The cost of carrying out the identity, physical check and sampling is (NOTE: subject to courier fee of £15.00): £103.91
Analytical cost – Assigned by lab
Non-compliant consignment – £145.05
The following charges apply, and will be applied on a per consignment per country basis.
A consignment will be determined as goods covered by a distinct set of documentation e.g. where there is more than one processing statement in the IUU documentation (particularly where it pairs with a CHED-P), it is likely to be processed and charged separately.
For low risk consignments £28.72 per flag state country.
Imports coming directly from the following flag states are currently defined as low risk:
For high risk consignments £56.80 per flag state country.
The following imports are currently defined as high risk:
Due to the additional work in checking documents from more than one country and checking and handling multiple documents additional charges have been introduced.
The appropriate checking fee of £28.72 or £56.80 is applied for each country that certification is received from. In addition where multiple certificates are submitted to accompany a consignment a sliding scale of charges will be applied:
Number of Certificates | Charge per high risk country | Charge per low risk country |
1-5 | £56.80 | £28.72 |
6-10 | £85.51 | £49.46 |
11-20 | £99.55 | £64.44 |
21+ | £113.90 | £78.48 |
The number of certificates are counted per country to reflect the amount of work incurred in checking the certification.
Intervention Charges
Charges for consignments requiring verification/ movement control intervention or non-conforming consignments have increased to accurately reflect the amount of additional work required to be undertaken for such consignments.
Where a CHED-D is submitted for a product covered by GM and other high risk product controls e.g. rice noodles for aluminium, only one document check charge will apply.
| Documentary Check (CHED-D) | £64.98 |
| Identity check, Physical check and taking Sample | £88.46 (processed products) £119.74 (bulk rice) |
Analyst fee full sample – Assigned by lab |
Non-compliant consignment
£145.05
Certificate verification
| If the pre-notification is created on PHILIS DES | £54.16 |
| If the pre-notification is not created on PHILIS DES | £72.20 |
| Sampling – 10 sub samples + analytical cost | £116.25 |
Issuing a Regulation 7 notice under the Organic Products Regulations 2009
£145.05
The charges are calculated based on the gross tonnage of the vessel. The current charges are:
| Gross Tonnage | Charge |
| Up to 1,000 | £135 |
| 1,001 – 3,000 | £185 |
| 3,001 – 10,000 | £270 |
| 10,001 – 20,000 | £355 |
| 20,001 – 30,000 | £450 |
| Over 30,000 | £520 |
With the exception of:
Vessels with the capacity to carry between 50 and 1000 persons = £520
Vessels with the capacity to carry more than 1000 persons = £890
Extension of existing Ship Sanitation Certificate = £105
Vessel inspection following notification from another Competent Authority of conditions on board requiring further investigation = £105
Standard Drinking Water Parameters – drinking water sampling for Coliforms, E.coli, and Enterococci are carried out on request
Analytical testing using the standard drinking water parameters is charged at £107.49 for the first sample and £53.75 for any additional sample taken at the same time. (It is recommended that 3 samples are taken at different points in the vessels fresh water distribution system.)
Legionella – testing for Legionella can be carried out on request.
The rate for sampling and analysis is £150.56 for the first sample and £94.35 for any additional samples taken at the same time.
Please note: A single sample can only provide information as to the presence of legionella at an individual point on the ships water system. Therefore due to the nature of this organism and the associated risk one sample cannot provide assurances as to the legionella status of the vessels water distribution systems.
A survey consisting of numerous samples taking into account the vessel size, nature and layout of the water distribution systems would be needed to give an indication of a vessel’s overall legionella status.
Further advice and information can be provided on this if required.
Please note that prices are subject to change depending on Government approval.
In addition to the charge that port health makes the Port of Felixstowe may also make other charges to produce your container for examination and for storing goods. Click here for a list of Port of Felixstowe charges.
Hourly rate charge: £94.76
Please be aware we charge a fee of £8.24 for postage of any document returns (where no courier is used).
| Trailer Charge | £103.00 |
| Location Attendance Charge | £51.50 |
| Late Submission Charge | £91.88 |
| Admin Charge for refund of payments made into Philis account in error | £34.09 |
| General Admin Charge | £34.09 |
| Document Checks completed on diverted consignments | £34.09 |
| Photocopy Charge | £6.18 |
