Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the operation of the Seasonal Workers Pilot.

Defra and the Home Office have been working closely to ensure the successful operation of the Seasonal Workers Pilot, and to undertake an effective assessment. The evaluation of the Seasonal Workers Pilot is ongoing and the results will be published in due course. The expansion of the Pilot in 2020 will enable the Government to carry out a more extensive evaluation of the systems and process in place to access labour from non-EEA countries, ahead of any decisions being taken of how the future needs of the sector may be addressed.