The permanent secretary at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) Paul Kissack has said that he was unaware of the government’s plan to address reports of a sheep shearer shortage in the UK.
This news came to light at an EFRA Select Committee meeting yesterday (Tuesday, March 3), where several senior Defra representatives were invited to answer questions on the department’s “perceived shortcomings and examples of poor communication with its stakeholders.”
During the committee session, it emerged that none of the senior civil servants giving evidence were aware of the reported shortage in sheep shearers.
According to Orkney and Shetland MP and EFRA committee chair Alistair Carmichael, this shortage “has been created by a Home Office refusal to issue visas for sheep shearers from New Zealand and other countries.”
EFRA Committee
Carmichael noted the census in the sheep industry is that there is “a looming animal welfare crisis” waiting to happen this year in relation to the availability of overseas shearers, who shear roughly 1.5 million sheep each year on average in the UK.
He said: “This is a significant problem and it’s one of the government’s own making because it’s the Home Office who have refused visas for these 75 foreign shearers.”
The chair asked Kissack if there has been any discussion between Defra and the Home Office regarding these visas and how they plan to deal with the future “animal welfare crisis” from sheep being unsheared.
The Defra permanent secretary responded: “I confess I don’t know what our plan is on that.
“I suspect there has been conversation between Defra and the Home Office, but it hasn’t hit my desk at this point.”
Kissack reiterated that Defra will always “champion the interests” of the sheep sector with their departmental colleagues.
Defra
Carmichael went on to question Kissack on why he was not aware of this issue, considering that it “is seen in the industry as looming crisis”.
He queried: “What I’m suggesting to you is that this is seen in the industry as a looming crisis, and it might be interesting for you professionally to drill down into the reasons it has not filtered up through the system to your desk, if indeed there is anything being done about it at all.
“Does that not really illustrate why the industry holds the rather poor view that it does of the department?”
Kissack said: “I don’t think you should judge how well the department is doing by what happens to hit my desk.
“We might be doing a very active programme of work engaging with communities affected. I don’t know.”
The Defra chief added that he will “go back to the department and work out” what is being done in relation the reported sheep shearer shortage.
