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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 6 July 2023 to Question 192337 on Labour Shortages in the Food Supply Chain Independent Review, what the criteria were for the appointment of the (a) chair and (b) expert panel; and whether she made an assessment of the potential merits of including people with lived experience of working as labourers in the food supply chain on the panel.

The chair and expert panel were directly appointed by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs based on a set of criteria, including for their knowledge and expertise covering farming, fisheries, processing and manufacturing aspects of the supply chain. Since it was an independent review, Defra is not responsible for commenting on the specific evidence used to shape the final report, but notes that the Review does contain a Methodology section with more information that may be of interest. However, Defra does undertake an annual survey of workers involved in the Seasonal Worker visa route and this information was made available to the review team.