Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications were (a) made and (b) granted under the fuel tanker driver concession visa, which closed on 15 October 2021.

On 1 October, the Home Office stood up at pace an emergency arrangement for HGV drivers in the fuels supply sector. This arrangement permitted fully licensed and qualified drivers, identified by the fuel transport sector and endorsed by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, to take up employment in the UK on a temporary basis. The arrangement closed on 15 October 2021.

The rapid deployment of this arrangement necessitated applications for leave to enter be considered at the border, and as a result this group is not discretely captured within published Home Office data.

This arrangement formed part of a wider response to issues in the supply chain. The UK Government is working with the haulage sector to promote jobs, training and a range of other initiatives to get more people into HGV driving.

Like other sectors the focus should be on training and recruiting from the UK based workforce in the first instance, especially given the impact of the pandemic resulting in more UK based workers looking for new employment. Reported shortages of HGV drivers across the EU and much of the developed world also indicate the ability to recruit abroad is no guarantee of being able to do so.