Guidance

Critical goods for government-secured freight capacity: a list of category 1 goods

Updated 15 March 2021

A category 1 good is one which is critical to preservation of human or animal welfare and/or national security for the United Kingdom.

The government’s freight capacity framework is intended to support the continued supply of Category 1 goods in the event of disruption to key freight flows.

Goods which are category 1 and within consideration of the government-secured freight capacity at this stage

Department of Health and social care

  • human medicines, covering prescription-only, pharmacy and general sales list medicines, clinical trials and children’s vitamins (for import and export)
  • medical devices and clinical consumables (for import and export)
  • vaccines (for import only)
  • nutritional specialist feeds, including infant milk formula (for import only)
  • biological materials such as blood, organs, tissues and cells (for import only)

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Goods which are category 1 but are not considered to require access to government-secured freight capacity at this stage

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

  • critical food chain dependencies, e.g. chemicals and key additives used within the food supply chain (for import only as required)
  • chemicals for water purification and treatment

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

  • critical chemicals or consumables used within the energy sector (for import only as required)
  • critical spare parts for the energy sector (for import only as required)

Ministry of Defence

  • items required for military or national security purposes (for import or export as required)

This list may be subject to further revision or amendment based upon further evidence and emergent needs. It will be kept under review and updated accordingly.