The Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture has confirmed it has not commissioned any new reports on the Meat Plant since the Birnie Report in 2022.
Yet official payment records show DEFA paid Birnie Consultancy more than £22,000 in 2025, during the same period the Meat Company was producing its own internal review.
In a written Tynwald answer, DEFA Minister Clare Barber said that in December 2024, the Chair of the Isle of Man Meat Company told DEFA’s then Chief Officer that he had asked a Board member to produce a review of the Plant, using the 2022 Birnie Report as a benchmark.
The minister stressed that no government‑commissioned reports have been produced since Birnie.
Report Incoming
The Meat Company’s own open letter to producers supports that position, stating: “By January, we had produced another professional White Paper through Birnie Consultancy, which we submitted to DEFA in early March.”
Payment records released separately show that Isle of Man Meats paid Birnie Consultancy £29,301.88 in 2025, consistent with the Board commissioning its own White Paper.
But the same records also show that DEFA paid Birnie Consultancy £22,854 in 2025, and a further £22,084 in 2024, alongside substantial payments to Quantum Connection Ltd.
These payments were made under the Accounting Officer’s delegated authority and continued until August 2025.
The timing is notable because Dr Jonathan Birnie, the agricultural economist who authored the original 2022 Birnie Report, joined the Isle of Man Meats Board in 2024, shortly before the internal review and White Paper were produced through his consultancy.
What Was it Paying For?
The minister’s answer does not specify what work Birnie Consultancy was carrying out for DEFA during this period, nor whether it related to the review the Board says it produced and submitted to the Department.
DEFA has said that routine regulatory audits continue annually, and that a set of Meat Plant‑related reports is being prepared for publication by June 1.
The overlap between the internal review commissioned by the Meat Company, the White Paper submitted to DEFA, and the payments made by both the Meat Company and DEFA to the same consultancy creates a gap in the public record about what exactly DEFA funded Birnie Consultancy to do during the period the Minister maintains no government‑commissioned reports were produced.
Further detail may emerge when DEFA publishes its reports later this year.
