UK government 'decides to do nothing' on looming crisis on veterinary medicines to Northern Ireland
A startled House of Lords committee has heard that the UK government has decided to stand back and do nothing as the flow of up to 40% of veterinary medicines into Northern Ireland is halted in January.
The information came to light today as the House of Lords Northern Ireland Scrutiny Committee questioned key industry representatives about the potential impact of new EU rules governing the distribution of veterinary medicine in Northern Ireland, which will apply in full from January 1 2026.
Experts giving evidence to the committee were Alexander Kinnear, parliamentary officer with the Ulster Farmers' Union; Bryan Lovegrove, secretary general with the Animal Health Distributors Association; Kirsten Dunbar, Northern Ireland Branch president of the British Veterinary Association and Mark Little, Northern Ireland Branch honorary secretary of the British Veterinary Association.
The panel told the peers that:
l Up to 40% of veterinary medicines being supplied to NI could be discontinued from 1 January;
l This is due to post-Brexit grace periods expiring, during which the EU allowed veterinary medicines to come from GB into NI without EU testing;
l While up to 20 critical medicines are under threat the issue affects many more medicines because it may only be possible to buy some in large bulk volumes.
Committee member Baroness Ritchie is also a member of the government group which is overseeing the whole transition – the Veterinary Medicines Working Group.
She told the committee the government has decided to do nothing until it sees how serious the situation becomes in 2026.
She said: “I have talked to the minister about this particular issue and about trying to get a solution prior to the 31st of December. It is my understanding that they want to see how the system works before they undertake any further intervention.”
Lord Dodds responded: “It sounds as if they're just going to say, 'we'll wait and see how bad it gets, and then we might do something' – which is an atrocious position when it comes to something like animal health.”
Baroness O’Loan reflected on the scale of the agri-food economy in Northern Ireland. She noted the EU is demanding a contribution from the UK in return for post-Brexit deals and posed the question – “are they actually using Northern Ireland animal health as a bargaining ploy?”
She suggested the EU might settle the issue only when the UK “coughs up”.
Baroness Foster said that Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol allows the UK to take unilateral action to resolve the problem if there is a diversion of trade; the committee heard over 90% of current medicines supplies are likely to be diverted to NI via Dublin instead of GB. But she said it was unlikely the UK would take unilateral action because it is keen to secure deals with the EU.
Lord Dodds name checked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the Stormont Executive and particularly the Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture Environment and Rural Affairs: "I'm very confident that they're fighting tooth and nail on these issues?" he asked.
But Mr Little replied that while Daera participates in the Veterinary Medicines Working Group overseeing the matter, “no communications have been forthcoming” on the issues as Daera says this is “not their remit”.