NFU lobbies for sheep shearer migrant exemption

The number of sheep shearers coming into the UK from non-EU countries will not be capped under new migration laws, thanks to NFU lobbying.

Around 500 workers come to the UK every summer and help shear nearly 15million animals but there were fears that the Governments new migration rules could adversely affect this.

But now Security Minister Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones has said that, following lobbying from the NFU and NAAC, it was vital that scarce skills should be protected from the migration cap. The Minister also added she was sympathetic to the profession itself and went on to describe a dual track system of accommodating scarce skills while at the same time developing the skills that are imported in the resident labour force.

NFU senior legal adviser James Potter said: Sheep shearers from non-EU countries play a vital role in supporting the wool industry in this country and helping farmers through a busy summer season.

We are pleased that the Government has listened to our calls to exempt occupations in this scarce category from the new Visa caps as the NFU believes that a failure to do so would have a real negative impact on the countrys food security and exemplary standards of animal welfare.

The Government has introduced a temporary cap on skilled workers coming into the United Kingdom from non-EU countries up until April next year. A joint consultation by the Home Office and Migration Advisory Committee, due to be published in September, is expected to determine the permanent cap post-April 2011.

Baroness Neville-Jones was speaking at the House of Lords Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee on Tuesday July 13 2010