A UK government department “forgot to tell all the Crown dependencies” about new animal health regulations, a committee has heard.
The claim came during a scrutiny hearing into the government’s external relations work, where officials revealed the oversight left the island potentially exposed to biosecurity risks.
Chris Brannigan, Executive Director of Crown and External Relations, told Tynwald’s constitutional affairs committee that the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs had failed to communicate changes affecting the island.
“There’s been discussion recently over BSC and bluetongue that had just been missed.
“When we go back via the Ministry of Justice to talk to Defra in the UK, they’ll say, we just, you know, in this sort of post-Brexit reorganisation of UK ministerial departments, they just forgot to tell all the Crown dependencies,” Mr Brannigan said.
He added that the island should not feel it was “singled out”, as the department had failed to inform all of the Crown Dependencies.
The committee heard that officials were now working to “accelerate and mitigate the risk that might be felt on the island”.