Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of allocating more temporary visas to workers in the food and drink supply chain to ensure sufficient food supplies at Christmas 2021 and beyond.

Answered by Kevin Foster

Recognising the extraordinary circumstances facing businesses currently, Government is providing visas as a time-limited, temporary measure for the food sector until longer term measures to improve the supply of skills domestically start to have an impact. This includes visas for up to:

• Up to 4,700 HGV food drivers who will be able to arrive from late October and leave by 28 February 2022;
• Up to 5,500 poultry workers can arrive from late October and stay up until 31 December 2021; and
• Up to 800 pork butchers who will be able to arrive from early November until 31 December 2021 and stay for up to 6 months.

It will be for the sectors and companies concerned to make use of these opportunities to recruit labour over this period.

However, we must see long-term solutions delivered by employers through improved training and hiring, with better pay and working conditions, as immigration routes do not provide a guarantee of being able to recruit in a competitive global market for skilled workers. Therefore, we have no further plans to provide more temporary visas in this sector.

The Points Based System already provides for a range of roles in the food and drink sector, including roles such as Butchers, to be recruited on a global basis subject to the rules and requirements of the system being met, including on salary.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the food and drink sector's proposal for a covid recovery visa scheme.

Answered by Kevin Foster

The Points Based System already provides for a range of roles in the food and drink sector, including roles such as Butchers, subject to the rules and requirements of the system being met, including on salary.

Beyond the Points Based Systems, employers can recruit those with general work rights including the millions of people who have been granted status under the EU Settlement Scheme, those who have arrived via our settlement route for British National (Overseas) normally resident in Hong Kong and their households, those who have arrived via a family visa and those in the UK under our Youth Mobility Schemes. They have full access to the UK labour market and are free to work in the UK and can undertake any role.

But recognising the extraordinary circumstances facing businesses currently, Government is providing visas as a time-limited, temporary measure for the food sector until longer term measures to improve the supply of skills domestically. start to have an impact. This includes visas for up to:

• 4,700 HGV food drivers who will be able to arrive from late October and leave by 28 February 2022 and;

• 5,500 poultry workers will arrive from late October and stay up until 31 December 2021.

However we must see long-term solutions delivered by employers through improved testing and hiring, with better pay and working conditions, as immigration routes do not provide a guarantee of being able to recruit in a competitive global market for skilled workers.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the shortage occupation list, what discussions she has had with stakeholders in the food and drink sector on labour shortages in the food supply chain; and what steps she is taking to resolve those shortages in the short term.

Answered by Kevin Foster

Home Office Ministers and officials meet with a broad range of stakeholders including various sectors and other Government departments. The Government position remains we will not be introducing a short-term visa route such as the ‘Covid recovery visa’ as has been suggested.

Most of the solutions are likely to be driven by industry, with a big push towards improving pay, conditions and diversity needed, rather than turning to the Home Office for immigration policy changes as an alternative to doing this. Employers with recruitment issues should therefore engage with the Department for Work and Pensions about the support they can provide in recruiting from the UK Labour Market,

The Points Based System does provide for occupations within the agri-food sector, including butchers, a range of poultry roles and fishmongers, subject to the requirements of the system – including English language and salary – being met. An occupation does not need to be on the Shortage Occupation List (SOL) to be sponsored for a Skilled Worker visa

Beyond the Points Based System, there is the existing UK labour market, which includes those who come to the UK through our Youth Mobility Schemes (which we are looking to expand), our new British National (Overseas) visa for those from Hong Kong, dependants of those arriving under the expanded skilled worker route, as well as over 6 million applications under the EU Settlement Scheme and those who arrive through family routes, who all have access to the UK labour market.

As a transitional measure, to help farm businesses adjust to changes to the UK labour market, the Seasonal Workers Pilot was extended into this year with 30,000 visas available. Decisions on the future of the pilot will be taken in due course, following evaluation of the scheme.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to increase access to labour to support the UK food and drink distribution sector.

Answered by Kevin Foster

Home Office Ministers and officials meet with a broad range of stakeholders including various sectors and other Government departments. The Government position remains we will not be introducing a short-term visa route such as the ‘Covid recovery visa’ as has been suggested. Most of the solutions are likely to be driven by industry, with a big push towards improving pay, conditions and diversity needed.

The Points Based System does provide for occupations within the agri-food sector, including butchers, a range of poultry roles, and fishmongers, subject to the requirements of the system – including English language and salary – being met.

Beyond the Points Based System, there is the existing UK labour market, which includes those who come to the UK through our Youth Mobility Schemes (which we are looking to expand), our new British National (Overseas) visa for those from Hong Kong, dependants of those arriving under the expanded skilled worker route, as well as over 6 million applications under the EU Settlement Scheme and those who arrive through family routes, who all have access to the UK labour market.

As a transitional measure, to help farm businesses adjust to changes to the UK labour market, the Seasonal Workers Pilot was extended into this year with 30,000 visas available. Decisions on the future of the pilot will be taken in due course, following evaluation of the scheme.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the potential merits of introducing a visa scheme for food and drink workers to support covid-19 economic recovery.

Answered by Kevin Foster

Home Office Ministers and officials meet with a broad range of stakeholders including various sectors and other Government departments. The Government position remains we will not be introducing a short-term visa route such as the ‘Covid recovery visa’ as has been suggested. Most of the solutions are likely to be driven by industry, with a big push towards improving pay, conditions and diversity needed.

The Points Based System does provide for occupations within the agri-food sector, including butchers, a range of poultry roles, and fishmongers, subject to the requirements of the system – including English language and salary – being met.

Beyond the Points Based System, there is the existing UK labour market, which includes those who come to the UK through our Youth Mobility Schemes (which we are looking to expand), our new British National (Overseas) visa for those from Hong Kong, dependants of those arriving under the expanded skilled worker route, as well as over 6 million applications under the EU Settlement Scheme and those who arrive through family routes, who all have access to the UK labour market.

As a transitional measure, to help farm businesses adjust to changes to the UK labour market, the Seasonal Workers Pilot was extended into this year with 30,000 visas available. Decisions on the future of the pilot will be taken in due course, following evaluation of the scheme.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will introduce a 12-month covid-19 recovery visa for people involved in the food and drinks sector supply chains.

Answered by Kevin Foster

The Government position remains we will not be introducing a short-term visa route allowing recruitment at or near the minimum wage with no work-based training requirements, such as the ‘Covid recovery visa’ which has been suggested.

Most of the solutions for labour shortages are likely to be driven by industry, with a big push towards improving pay, conditions and diversity needed. This includes business facing recruitment issues engaging with the Department for Work and Pensions about the support they can provide, rather than turning to the Home Office for immigration based solutions instead.

The UK labour market has changed rapidly in recent months and we need time to monitor the impact of the new Skilled Worker route, as well as how the economy recovers post-Covid 19 including those individuals who will begin returning to the labour market from the furlough scheme.

The independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) found some roles in the food production, supply and agricultural sectors meet the RQF3 skills threshold for the Skilled Worker route so are eligible to be sponsored for a Skilled Worker visa and can therefore be recruited on global basis. The threshold was previously set at degree-level jobs. Modelling by the MAC suggests the new, broader RQF3 threshold strikes a reasonable balance between controlling immigration and business access to labour.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the (a) potential merits of including (i) butchers, (ii) poultry technicians and (iii) other food production workers on the shortage occupation list to ensure food supplies are maintained, (b) potential merits of introducing a temporary suspension or moratorium on the restriction of freedom of movement for food production workers and (c) applicability of the points based immigration system to food production workers; and what assessment she has made of the potential merits of expanding the seasonal worker scheme to include migrant labour in food production to support the meat processing industry.

Answered by Kevin Foster

The independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) found some roles in the food production, supply and agricultural sectors, such as Butchers, meet the RQF3 skills threshold for the Skilled Worker route so are eligible to be sponsored for a Skilled Worker visa, whereas others do not. The threshold was previously set at degree-level jobs. Modelling by the MAC suggests the new, broader skills threshold of RQF3 (A-level or equivalent) strikes a reasonable balance between controlling immigration and providing business access to skills on as global basis.

The Government believes it is important to monitor the impact of the new Skilled Worker route, as well as how the economy recovers post-Covid 19, before making any wide-scale changes. Jobs do not need to be on the Shortage Occupation List to recruited via the Skilled Worker route, but the relevant skill and salary thresholds must be met to qualify.

The Seasonal Workers Pilot will continue to operate specifically in the edible horticulture sector, to help farmers growing UK fruit and vegetables and ensure our nation’s food security.

We will continue to monitor the labour needs of other sectors, however, specific work visas should not be seen as the only option for additional recruitment as immigration must be considered alongside our policies for the UK Labour market, not as an alternative to them.

Therefore business with recruitment issues should, in the first instance, engage with the Department for Work and Pensions about the support they can offer in recruiting from the existing UK labour market, which includes those who come to the UK through our Youth Mobility Schemes (which we are looking to expand), our new British National (Overseas) visa for those from Hong Kong, those who hold status under the Eu Settlement Scheme, dependants of those arriving under the expanded skilled worker route, and those who arrive through other routes, such as our family and humanitarian protection ones, who all have access to the UK labour market.

Found: , Promoting Britain Abroad, 24 October 2022, HC 156, 2022- 23, p.23 30 As above 31 PQ 49108 [Migrant