Agriculture: Seasonal Workers

(asked on 27th June 2022) - 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 assessment his Department has made of the effect of making 40,000 visas available for seasonal workers on the labour needs of the agricultural sector.


Answered by
Victoria Prentis Portrait
Victoria Prentis
Attorney General
This question was answered on 4th July 2022

Defra works with the agriculture sector and other government departments to understand labour supply and demand, including for both permanent and seasonal workforce requirements, and to ensure there is a long-term strategy for the farming workforce.

Following an announcement in the Food Strategy White Paper the extra 10,000 visas have now been released for the Seasonal Worker Visa Route (bringing the total to 40,000 visas for 2022) with 8,000 of these going to the horticulture sector and 2,000 to the poultry sector.

We will continue to monitor the labour needs of the agriculture sector and the impacts of these additional visas.

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