Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that workers on the seasonal workers scheme who cannot switch between scheme operators can transfer between jobs, in the context of an increase in the number of labour providers in the scheme.

The UK government is committed to supporting the agricultural industry as it continues to adapt to changes in the UK labour market.

The Government has taken the decision to increase the number of Scheme Operators for the Seasonal Worker route to reflect the announced increase in the scheme quota. Scheme operators are selected by DEFRA through a fair and open selection process according to their own criteria and recommended to the Home Office – who assess the operator’s suitability to become a licenced sponsor. Details of DEFRA’s selection process are publicly available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/seasonal-worker-visa-route-request-for-information-rfi.

The Scheme Operators are already required to have a clear employer transfer pathway in place as a condition of holding their sponsor licence, including transparent criteria for making a transfer request and a process for

considering such requests. The Scheme Operators must not normally refuse requests to change employers, and may only do so where there are significant reasons preventing a transfer, for example the imminent expiry of a workers visa. This is set out in published Home Office guidance, available at: Workers and Temporary Workers: guidance for sponsors: sponsor a seasonal worker - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)