Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps to put checks are in place to ensure that workers who entered the UK on the agricultural Seasonal Worker visa are placed in work before further workers are brought to the UK; and what steps her Department is taking to (a) monitor the numbers of and (b) offer support to workers on the visa who are unable to find work.

The Seasonal Worker is an ‘operator led’ immigration route, with four scheme operators selected to manage the placement of workers on UK farms and to ensure their welfare in the UK.

The Seasonal Worker scheme operators are responsible for managing all aspects of the recruitment and placement of workers on UK farms, and ensure workers have sufficient work as part of their sponsorship duties. The Home Office closely monitors the scheme operators to ensure they are complying with their sponsor duties. Non-compliance with the guidance could result in the revocation of their sponsor license.

The Home Office monitors the number of workers who enter the UK through this route and the number of workers that return to ensure that the route is operating effectively. We do not however routinely publish information about lengths of stay.