Official Health Certificates for Imports of Animal Products   

For most imports of animal products subject to official border controls an official health certificate issued by the competent authority in the exporting country is required and the original of this must be submitted to the border control post. The original is then kept at the BCP and retained for 3 years. 

The person responsible for the load is entitled to an authenticated copy of the original health certificate. However, experience shows that in many cases an authenticated copy of the original health certificate is not required by the person responsible for the load. To issue authenticated copy certificates where they are not required is wasteful of time and resources.

Therefore we will issue authenticated copy health certificates only on request. If you require an authenticated copy health certificate for your consignment, please let us know as follows:

Deep sea trade: 

Make a photocopy of the original certificate and submit it to us with the original health certificate. We will then authenticate the photocopy and return it to you with the CHED once the goods have been released. The photocopy submitted for authentication must be an exact copy of the original, double-sided or single-sided as the case may be to match the original. If the photocopy submitted does not match the original we will not be able to authenticate it.

Trailers:

As the original certificate travels with the driver in most cases, it is not realistic for the person responsible for the load to submit a photocopy of the original to us. Therefore, for trailers, if you require an authenticated copy certificate, please let us know by email to edocs@scpha.gov.uk at the time you complete the CHED on IPAFFS.

Requests for this service will incur an Admin charge.

Other scenarios

For transits and transshipments, the original certificate must be submitted but will then be returned.

For refused consignments or where a replacement certificate is required, the original certificate will be cancelled and will be returned on request.

Please note we cannot provide authenticated copies of electronic certificates.