Plant Passporting

If you’re based in the UK and moving plants or plant products in the EU that can host quarantine pests and diseases, they may need plant passports.

The following section looks at guidance for plant passporting under the Plant Health Regulation (PHR), which became applicable in the UK from 14 December 2019. Although we are no longer a member of the EU, we are in a transition period where all EU laws will continue to apply.

Please take a look at this factsheet and flowchart produced by the Scottish Government on plant passporting.

Becoming authorised to issue plant passports

Plant passports may only be issued by businesses who are registered and authorised for the purpose.

If you are new to plant passporting:

If your business is already issuing plant passports:

  • Your registration will be rolled over, you need to apply annually for authorisation as previously.
  • Businesses whose principle place of business is in England, Wales or Northern Ireland should contact the competent authorities in those territories for further advice on registration and authorisation.

Products requiring a plant passport

Please see the list of products requiring a plant passport.

Plant passports and protected zones

Some plants and plant products must have a passport to enter parts of EU countries called ‘Protected Zones’. A ‘Protected Zone’ (PZ) is an area designated as free from a particular quarantine pest(s). The PZ plant passport states that the plant or plant product in question is free from the relevant PZ quarantine pest.

Please see our guidance on protected zones.

Inspection Fees

Please see the fees for plant health inspections. These fees are taken from the Plant Health Fees (Scotland) Regulation 2008.

Examples of a standard plant passport 

Note: The size of the plant passport, the use of a border line, the proportions of the size of their elements, and the fonts used in the models are only examples.

Standard Plant Passport Examples

Plant passport checklist:

  • A visible EU flag
  • Legible text (handwritten clearly allowed as long as in capitals)
  • The words ‘plant passport’1
  • The Botanical names2 (A)
  • Country code of issuer3 (B) e.g.  GB
  • Registration number4 (B) e.g. for Scotland, it will be ‘S’ followed by a 5 digit number
  • Traceability code5 (C)
  • Code of origin code (EU member state or 3rd country) 7 or 8 (D)
  • Barcode or similar (optional)

Please see the guidance for more information, which also includes FAQ.

Other resources

Another tool you may find useful is this video created by the HTA

HTA – Plant Passporting – Get Ready

Any questions

Please contact the Scottish Government’s Horticulture and Marketing Unit: hort.marketing@gov.scot

See also the Plant Passporting Documents and Forms page.