Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the ability of local workers to fill vacancies for seasonal employment in the (a) tourism and hospitality and (b) agricultural sectors.

Free movement is ending and we will not simply replicate it in a future system. The UK’s new points based system will focus on the brightest and best and ensure we bring in those this country needs. We need to shift the focus of our economy away from a reliance on cheap labour from Europe and consider immigration alongside investment in technology, innovation, automation and development of the UK’s domestic labour force.

Business can continue to rely on those EU/EEA nationals, and their family members, living in the UK with settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, and those who come to the UK through youth mobility schemes. We will also extend the pilot scheme for seasonal workers to 10,000 places.

In delivering on our manifesto commitment, the Government has considered relevant views, evidence and analysis. We will also continue to keep labour market data under careful scrutiny.