Home / Sources / Select Committees / Environment, Food and Rural A… / Labour shortages in the food and farmin…
Index live
Select Committee · Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee

Labour shortages in the food and farming sector

Status: Closed Opened: 15 Sep 2021 Closed: 20 Jul 2022 10 recommendations 5 conclusions 1 report

There have been reports of labour shortages affecting some businesses throughout the food and farming sector, for example: farms have been unable to hire all the seasonal workers they need to harvest food (and pick other crops such as flowers); businesses in the food and drink processing sector – the country’s largest manufacturing sector – …

Clear

Reports

1 report
Title HC No. Published Items Response
Fourth report - Labour shortages in the food and farming se… HC 713 6 Apr 2022 15 Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

2 items
12 Recommendation Fourth report - Labour shortages in the… Accepted in Part

We welcome some of the reforms that Government has made to the Seasonal Workers Pilot,...

We welcome some of the reforms that Government has made to the Seasonal Workers Pilot, including accepting our recommendation that the scheme is extended to the ornamental sector and the provisional announcement of the number of Seasonal Worker Visas for 2022 through to 2024. Given the expansion of the SWP …

Government response. The government extended the Seasonal Worker route to 2024, allowing overseas workers to harvest both edible and ornamental crops and released an additional 10,000 visas. However, they do not intend to publish monthly updates on the seasonal labour market.
13 Recommendation Fourth report - Labour shortages in the… Accepted in Part

We also call on the Government to make the Seasonal Workers Pilot a permanent scheme...

We also call on the Government to make the Seasonal Workers Pilot a permanent scheme and for it to commit to announcing the number of visas that will be available under the scheme on a rolling five-year basis. (Paragraph 69) Longer term solutions

Government response. The government extended the Seasonal Worker route to 2024 and released an additional 10,000 visas. They will make an evidence-based decision on the future of the visa route in 2024 but do not intend to publish more frequent statistical updates …

Oral evidence sessions

4 sessions
Date Witnesses
14 Dec 2021 Kevin Foster MP · Home Office, Philippa Rouse · SRO Future Border & Immigration System Programme, Migration & Borders Group View ↗
16 Nov 2021 David Kennedy · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, George Eustice · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs View ↗
9 Nov 2021 Andrew Opie · British Retail Consortium (BRC), Dr Ben Broadbent · Bank of England, Kate Nicholls · UKHospitality, Madeleine Sumption · Migration Observatory, Mr Tom Southall · Cold Chain Federation, Professor Jo Swaffield · University of York View ↗
26 Oct 2021 Charlie Dewhirst · National Pig Association, Derek Jarman · British Protected Ornamentals Association, Graeme Dear · British Poultry Council, Ian Wright · Food and Drink Federation, Mr James Russell · British Veterinary Association, Mr Nick Allen · British Meat Processors Association, Tom Bradshaw · National Farmers' Union (NFU) View ↗

Correspondence

3 letters
DateDirectionTitle
23 Jun 2022 — Correspondence from the Chair to Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Imm…
23 Feb 2022 — Correspondence from Minister Prentis re: Labour shortages in the food and farmi…
16 Sep 2021 — Correspondence to the Home Secretary relating to the inquiry into Labour shorta…