Gang master licence exemption for sheep shearers

The NFU has welcomed a decision by the Gangmasters Licensing Authority to grant an exemption from licensing for sheep shearers.

Farmers will be saved the extra costs that licensing would have entailed thanks to the fact that the clippers used by shearers are classified as machinery, and are therefore exempt.

NFU Livestock board chairman Thomas Binns said: "We welcome this common sense approach from the GLA which gives an exemption to sheep shearers.

"This would have put a considerable burden on the entire sector with contractors supplying sheep shearers for farmers forced to pay for gang master licences."