Agriculture: Migrant Workers

(asked on 5th May 2023) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made of the living and working conditions of migrant farm workers.


Answered by
Mark Spencer Portrait
Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 15th May 2023

The Home Office sponsor licence regime places a broad range of responsibilities on the operators of the Seasonal Workers visa route to safeguard migrant workers under the scheme, including protecting their rights and ensuring effective enforcement of UK employment laws.

The Government keeps these protections under close and ongoing review. A new team within the Home Office compliance network focuses on ensuring sponsors are abiding by workers’ rights by improving training and processes for compliance inspectors and creating clear policies and guidance for robust action for scheme operators where workers are at risk of exploitation. Should any of the selected operators fall short in these duties action will be taken, up to and including the revocation of their sponsor licence.

The Home Office and Defra maintain regular contact with scheme operators to ensure that they adhere to the stringent requirements set for ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the seasonal workers. All Seasonal Worker visa route operators are also required to hold a Gangmasters Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) licence, as a condition of maintaining their role as a scheme operator. The responsibilities and remit of the GLAA are set out on their website.

Defra continues to speak regularly with the agricultural sector including on matters relating to the welfare of seasonal workers. Defra also conducts an annual survey of workers, providing them with a route to provide direct feedback to us on their experience while working here including their living and working conditions. In addition, Defra officials engage with the industry and non-profit organisation led Seasonal Worker Taskforce, which focuses on practical actions to improve the responsible recruitment and employment of migrant workers into UK farms.

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