Shearing sheep in the United Kingdom. Image – British Wool.

THE United Kingdom’s agricultural contractors will continue to fight for access to overseas shearers after the country’s Home Office ended visa concessions for the workers and denied them temporary shortage skills status.

Chief executive of the UK’s National Association of Agricultural Contractors, Jill Hewitt, said the debate on access to overseas shearers is far from over.

“Firstly, the NAAC is continuing to lobby on this issue to convince the UK Government that overseas shearers remain vital to support the UK shearing team.

“This debate is far from over,” she said.

“There were a limited number of visa applications this year but there was significant confusion at a very late stage – with sudden, unexpected additional costs.

“We did have enough shearers here, but I suspect some came through other routes such as dual nationality or the Youth Mobility Scheme.”

The Home Office has claimed that only 16 overseas shearers utilised the dedicated visa concession during its final operational year.

Despite a letter writing campaign coordinated by British Wool, the National Association of Agricultural Contractors, the National Farmers’ Union and the National Sheep Association, The UK Home Office’s parliamentary under-secretary of state for Migration and Citizenship Jo White recently told the UK Parliament that sheep shearers and agricultural contractors will remain excluded from the UK’s Temporary Shortage List.

British Labour Party politician Josh Newbury recently asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if her department woudl make an assessment of the potential merits of restoring the role of agricultural contractor to the Temporary Shortage List.

Ms White replied that government’s approach is to link migration policy and visa controls to skills and labour market policies, so that immigration is not used as an alternative to training or tackling workforce problems in the UK.

“This approach is important to enabling delivery of the government’s broader agenda.

“The Temporary Shortage List (TSL) does not include agricultural contractors or sheep shearers,” Ms White said in her reply.

“It is only made up of occupations which are key to the industrial strategy or delivering critical infrastructure, and where ambitious jobs plans are in place to maximise the use of the UK workforce.”