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

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support farmers experiencing seasonal worker shortages.

Defra continues to speak regularly with the sector and other government departments to understand labour supply and demand, including both permanent and seasonal workforce requirements, and to make sure that these requirements are understood across government.

The Government recognises the importance of a reliable source of seasonal labour for crop production, and that it is a key part of bringing in the harvest for the horticultural sector. A key source of seasonal labour is the Seasonal Worker visa route, which allows a pre-defined number of overseas workers to come to the United Kingdom for up to six months to support horticulture growers during peak production periods, whilst maintaining robust immigration control.

To reduce the risk of seasonal labour shortages in horticulture, in December 2022, the Government announced that an allocation of 45,000 Seasonal Worker visas will be made available in 2023. This is an uplift of 15,000 visas compared to the allocation at the start of 2022. The Government confirmed at the Food Summit on 16 May that the number of Seasonal Workers visas available in 2024 for horticulture will again be 45,000. A further 2,000 visas are available for seasonal poultry workers to help manage pre-Christmas demand.

A further 10,000 visas are potentially available for horticulture should there be demand and contingent on sponsors and growers continuing to improve worker welfare standards. There are visas available in this year’s allocation and businesses should contact one of the scheme operators if they need seasonal workers.

There are currently six scheme operators for horticulture and two for poultry as follows:

Agri-HR (horticulture)

Concordia (horticulture)

Ethero (horticulture)

Fruitful Jobs (horticulture)

HOPS (horticulture)

Pro-Force Ltd (horticulture and poultry)

RE Recruitment (poultry)

To inform future decisions on labour across the sector, Defra also commissioned John Shropshire to carry out an Independent Review into Labour Shortages in the Food Supply Chain throughout 2022 and 2023, considering how automation, domestic labour and migrant labour could contribute to tackling labour shortages in our sectors, including horticulture.

This report was published on 30 June 2023 and the government response – which will also be informed by the Review of Automation in Horticulture – is expected to be published in autumn 2023. At the same time as the response, the Government will set out how it will support the sector to access the labour it needs alongside actions to reduce the sector’s reliance on migrant labour, including via our work on automation and promoting domestic labour procurement and training.