Latest Brexit “surprise”: Shortage of Vets

Add one more item to the list of “Oops, we never thought of that!” problems with Brexit that are coming to the surface at a relentless and increasing pace.
The Brexiteers’ promise that leaving the EU would in no way undermine the safety and reputation of British food standards has taken a hit from the revelation that a staggering 90% of the “Official Veterinarians” who police standards in UK abbatoirs are from the other 27 members of the EU. In fact it is estimated that fewer than 20 of the 500-odd vets protecting the standard of UK meat through the Food Standards Agency and other agencies are British-trained.

Leaving the EU will require a dramatic increase in the overall number of those specialists because of the extra work required to certify meat traded with the EU once Britain leaves the union but there has already been a significant decrease in applications for veterinary roles in meat hygiene since the Brexit referendum.

The leader of the British Veterinary Association told Felix Magazine that people within the profession had been aware of the EU dominance of the food safety work but policymakers and others are only now realising the problem.

“Like a lot of things with Brexit as we work out different scenarios people are becoming much more aware of the details and there is a sharp new focus on the importance of these (EU) professionals,” said the association president Gudrun Ravetz.

“There is a growing awareness that somehow maintaining and increasing that workforce will be very important to British trade if we are going to be importing and exporting to EU under new rules.”

The remarkable dominance of EU citizens working in abbatoirs to police things like mad cow disease and protect the high safety reputation of UK meat exports is because training on the continent places a much higher emphasis on such “public health” skills than does the curriculum of British vet courses.

There is also relatively little interest among British vet students in that line of work, with a recent survey finding that only 6% of students expressed an interest in “government work”.

“It has not been an area that young British vets really aspire to go into,” said Ravetz.

Apart from the Official Veterinarians, who used to be known as known as local veterinary inspectors, about 45% of the 650 vets working across central government agencies outside abbatoirs are from elsewhere in the EU.

The broader veterinarian industry also relies increasingly heavily on EU citizens, who make up an estimated 25-30% of the 28,000 registered vets, and almost half of the 2000 new vets registered each year.

Any interruption to the inflow of EU-trained vets would reduce the already-tight number of professionals available to care for “companion animals” and work with farmers.

Quickly training up British replacements for European vets would be impossible, as there are already shortages of home-grown vets, the country’s eight vet training colleges have limited spare capacity and in any case 22 % of veterinary surgeons working in veterinary academia in the UK come from the EU.

The Lords EU Environment Committee has expressed concern about the danger to food standards, animal welfare and British meat exports if EU-trained vets are deterred by post-Brexit immigration curbs, especially if the British Government hopes to enter new trade deals with countries with lower safety standards.

The reputation of British meat exports and safety standards of food in the UK would require

relevant vets to be exempted from post-Brexit immigration curbs, according to the BVA, which has been backed on the issue by the National Farmers Union.

Similar warnings have already been made by a growing number of other industries and professions, ranging from nuclear scientists, doctors and bankers to low-skilled workers needed for fish processing, fruit-picking and bar work.

“I know we are just one of many voices calling for continued access to European labour and skills so I suppose we have to try to get to the top of the pecking order when these decisions are made,” said the BVA’s Ravetz.

The danger of a shortage of vets would be particularly embarrassing for some of the most prominent Brexit campaigners.

In February Andrea Leadsom, the then Secretary for Environment and Agriculture acknowledged that one of the great trade advantages of British farmers was that “British food is renowned and respected for its high standards of animal welfare, food safety, and food traceability.”

Her replacement in that portfolio, fellow Brexiteer Michael Gove has insisted that the UK will retain existing standards of environmental and animal welfare outside of the EU, vowing that he intends to raise those standards even further.

 

by Peter Wilson

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