Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between George Eustice and Nicholas Dakin

Thursday 26th April 2018 Commons Chamber

[George Eustice]

My right hon. Friend makes an important point—this is crucial as we design environmental land management policy. There will be some interventions that may be highly short term, because they are instant and affect, for instance, the way in which farms approach agronomy or cropping. Others, such as those that my right hon. Friend highlights, may require a longer-term, more multi-annual commitment. That is entirely doable within the nature of the agreements that we are considering.

[Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)]

There are concerns among those involved in agriculture in my area about whether there will continue to be appropriate access to workforce when we leave the European Union. What are the Government doing to ensure that that will be the case?

[George Eustice]

As the hon. Gentleman is aware, the Migration Advisory Committee is carrying out a large piece of work on the UK’s labour needs after we have left the European Union. We have also listened carefully to industry representations about a seasonal agricultural worker scheme after we leave the European Union, and a working group is looking at seasonal agricultural labour.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between George Eustice and Nicholas Dakin

Thursday 26th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[George Eustice]

If the hon. Gentleman had listened to my earlier answer, he would know that I said precisely that we want to monitor trends in this disease, which is why we are starting to collect and test a sample of badgers to develop these protocols. A lot of post-mortem analysis was done during the RBCTs, and we know from that—it was not conclusive—that the typical prevalence rate of the disease in the badger population in the high-risk area is 30%.

[Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)]

6. What assessment he has made of the potential effect of the UK leaving the EU on the supply of labour to the farming and agricultural sectors.

[The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (George Eustice)]

We are working with the farming and agriculture sector to assess the impact on this industry of leaving the EU. Following the decision to close the seasonal agricultural workers scheme in 2013, DEFRA set up the SAWS transition working group, which brings industry and the Government together to monitor seasonal labour. I met this group on 7 September. DEFRA is working with the Home Office to ensure that workforce requirements are considered in any future immigration system.

[Nic Dakin]

In order to give farmers and the industry confidence in the system, when will the promised review that the Minister alludes to report?

[George Eustice]

We regularly meet the SAWS transition group, as I said, and we work closely with Home Office officials on this. The Home Office has established a review by the Migration Advisory Committee. Indeed, its call for evidence closes this week—on 27 October. Over the past month, we have been encouraging all interested parties to contribute to that review.