Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of including key food workers on the shortage occupation list to help tackle labour shortages in the meat industry.

The Home Secretary wrote to the Chair of the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) on 23 October 2020 setting out the Governments response to their review of the Shortage Occupation List (SOL).

A copy of the full letter can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/letter-to-the-mac-on-the-shortage-occupation-lists-report.

The UK labour market is changing as a result of the global pandemic, hence general queries about the availability of labour in the UK Labour Market and recruitment issues for businesses should be directed to the Department for Work and Pensions in the first instance.