Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the shortfall in the number of seasonal workers in (a) the horticultural sector and (b) other forms of agriculture (i) in 2018 and (ii) between April and October 2017; and what steps he is taking to prevent a shortfall in future years.

Peak demand for seasonal labour takes place in the third quarter of the year so it is too early to make an assessment for the current year.

Defra’s best estimate of the number of seasonal workers is 64,200 from the June 2016 Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture, however industry have higher estimates.

The ONS does not collect data on seasonal labour from the EU, so statistics on shortages in 2017 are not available.