Control of Wool Order

Summary

The requester asked about prosecutions under the Control of Wool Order and the management process since 2011. The Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture confirmed no violations or prosecutions have occurred and explained that the annual Order was replaced by a Minister-approved pricing process to make the service cost-neutral.

Key Facts

• No violations of the Control of Wool Order have been reported to the Department.
• Consequently, there have been zero prosecutions and no penalties enforced.
• Since 2011, the annual Control of Wool Order is no longer created.
• Wool pricing is now determined annually via a paper prepared in April/May and approved by the Minister.
• The new process aims to make the service largely cost-neutral to the taxpayer.

Data Disclosed

• 2019-11-19
• 2019-12-12
• 2010
• 26th May 2010
• 2011
• April/May
• 1059161

Original Request

Under the Control of Wool order please can you state what action (if any) has been taken against those in violation of the order, how many prosecutions and what penalties have been enforced. From 2011 no Control of wool order is available on the Tynwald website so can you explain the process for the management of the Control of Wool order from 2011 onwards Many thanks

Data Tables (1)

Full Response Text

Freedom of Information Co-ordinator Corporate Services Directorate Thie Slieau Whallian, Foxdale Road, St John’s, Isle of Man, IM4 3AS Tel no (01624) 685854 Fax no (01624 685851 Email: defa@gov.im www.gov.im

Our ref: 1059161 12th December 2019

Dear ###,

We write further to your request which was received on 19th November 2019 and which states:

1. "Under the Control of Wool order please can you state what action (if any) has been taken against those in violation of the order, how many prosecutions and what penalties have been enforced.
2. From 2011 no Control of wool order is available on the Tynwald website so can you explain the process for the management of the Control of Wool order from 2011 onwards Many thanks"

Our response to your request is as follows. 1. The Department has not been made aware of anyone violating the order and consequently there have been no prosecutions. 2. At its meeting on the 26th May 2010 the Agriculture & Animal Health Committee agreed to change the way in which farmers were paid for their wool. Since 2011, around April/May each year, a paper detailing the sale price achieved, the payment rates for each grade of wool and the costs incurred by the Department (although not the administration costs) has been prepared and passed to the Minister for approval. This sets the price paid to wool producers and the service to the farmers is now largely cost neutral to the taxpayer. Further information and context The previous process involved making a new Control of Wool Order each year and the price paid to farmers reflected the full realisation price at auction of the previous year’s clip, less the British Wool Marketing Board’s handling charges. No charge was made for the DAFF inputs such as wages, premises, carriage, storage and handling. In addition, further payments were made to farmers for interest to reflect the time lag between collection and payment.

The accounts were further complicated by the fact that the process often tended to overrun from one financial year to the next due to the final sale at auction not being completed in sufficient time. This made it almost impossible to forecast net annual cost as the majority of sales are right at the end of the year and the prices could be quite volatile from one year to the next. Please quote the reference number 1059161 in any future communications.

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Yours sincerely

Thomas Cain