Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what requirements are placed on Sponsoring Agencies under the Seasonal Workers Scheme to ensure that work will be available for the duration of the visa.
The Seasonal Worker scheme is an ‘operator led’ immigration route, with four scheme operators selected to manage the placement of workers on UK farms and to ensure their welfare in the UK.
The Seasonal Worker scheme operators are responsible for managing all aspects of the recruitment and placement of workers on UK farms and ensuring their welfare in the UK. It is therefore important that they do not recruit more workers than they can effectively support.
Scheme operators are expected to maximise the employment of all workers in the UK on a Seasonal Work visa. Operators rotate their work placements and are required to move workers between farms where the worker requests this. Allowing workers to move between operators would not be appropriate as it removes key welfare safeguards in the scheme. The current approach also ensures that each sector can fully benefit from the numbers of workers specifically allocated to them.