Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with Ministerial colleagues on the effect of new Immigration Rules on the employment of non-European Economic Area seafarers on vessels engaged in construction and maintenance of offshore wind projects in UK territorial waters.

A time-limited concession, outside of the Immigration Rules, has been introduced to afford the industry opportunity to take steps to regularise its arrangements for employing non-EEA crew of vessels engaged in the construction and maintenance of wind farms located in UK territorial waters. It is not possible to give an overall figure on the number of such crew affected.