Asked by: Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 6 July 2023 to Question 192337 on Labour Shortages in the Food Supply Chain Independent Review, what the criteria were for the appointment of the (a) chair and (b) expert panel; and whether she made an assessment of the potential merits of including people with lived experience of working as labourers in the food supply chain on the panel.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The chair and expert panel were directly appointed by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs based on a set of criteria, including for their knowledge and expertise covering farming, fisheries, processing and manufacturing aspects of the supply chain. Since it was an independent review, Defra is not responsible for commenting on the specific evidence used to shape the final report, but notes that the Review does contain a Methodology section with more information that may be of interest. However, Defra does undertake an annual survey of workers involved in the Seasonal Worker visa route and this information was made available to the review team.
Asked by: Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will set out the selection process for the (a) Chair and (b) panel for the Independent review into labour shortages in the food supply chain.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The chair and expert panel were directly appointed by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs based on a set of criteria, including their expertise in the food and farming sector. This method of appointment is common practice for independent reviews commissioned by HM Government.
Now that the final report has been published, we will look closely at the findings and set out our response in the Autumn.
Asked by: Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an estimate of the number of farms in Scotland with workers employed on the seasonal workers visa scheme; and the number of farms in Scotland with each labour provider.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We cannot publish any numbers with regards to the Seasonal Workers visa route which are outside of official approved Home Office published statistics. Details of the numbers of visas granted for seasonal workers, through the Seasonal Worker visa route, have been published in the usual way via the Home Office’s quarterly immigration statistics.
Asked by: Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of seasonal workers working in Scotland by labour provider as of 1 August 2022.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We cannot publish any numbers with regards to the Seasonal Workers visa route which are outside of official approved Home Office published statistics. Details of the numbers of visas granted for seasonal workers, through the Seasonal Worker visa route, have been published in the usual way via the Home Office’s quarterly immigration statistics.
Asked by: Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an estimate of the number of farms in the UK with workers employed on the seasonal workers visa scheme; and the number of farms in the UK with each labour provider.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We cannot publish any numbers with regards to the Seasonal Workers visa route which are outside of official approved Home Office published statistics. Details of the numbers of visas granted for seasonal workers, through the Seasonal Worker visa route, have been published in the usual way via the Home Office's quarterly immigration statistics.
Asked by: Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of seasonal workers working in the UK by labour provider as of 1 August 2022.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We cannot publish any numbers with regards to the Seasonal Workers visa route which are outside of official approved Home Office published statistics. Details of the numbers of visas granted for seasonal workers, through the Seasonal Worker visa route, have been published in the usual way via the Home Office's quarterly immigration statistics.
Asked by: Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to ban the import of hunting trophies.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government committed in its manifesto to introduce a ban on the import of hunting trophies from endangered species. The COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the publication of the Government response to the recent consultation and call for evidence on controls on the import and export of hunting trophies. We will set out our plans for action on this important area as soon as it is practical to do so.
Asked by: Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 8 October 2020 to Question 98994, whether he has made an assessment of the effectiveness of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers pilot scheme; and when he plans to make an announcement on that scheme's future.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
On 22 December 2020, the Government extended the Seasonal Workers Pilot for one year and expanded the number of visas from 10,000 to 30,000.
The extension and expansion of the Pilot for 2021 will allow for further evaluation of the pilot, including how growers will reduce their reliance on migrant labour now we have left the EU, whilst also easing some of the pressure felt on farms when they are at their busiest. The first-year evaluation information will be published later this year.
Defra is working closely with industry and the Home Office to better understand the effectiveness of interventions and to ensure there is a long-term strategy for the food and farming workforce beyond 2021.
Asked by: Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions her Department has had with (a) migrant representative organisations and (b) trade unions to assist (i) the evaluation assessing the impact of the Seasonal Workers Pilot in the agricultural sector; and (ii) the design of any future scheme to bring seasonal workers into UK agriculture.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
On 22 December 2020, the Government extended the Seasonal Workers Pilot for one year and expanded the number of visas from 10,000 to 30,000.
The extension and expansion of the Pilot for 2021 will allow for further evaluation of the pilot, including how growers will reduce their reliance on migrant labour now we have left the EU, whilst also easing some of the pressure felt on farms when they are at their busiest. The first-year evaluation information will be published later this year.
Defra is working closely with industry and the Home Office – who engage with a wide range of stakeholders, including non-governmental organisations, when designing and implementing immigration policy – to better understand the effectiveness of interventions and to ensure there is a long-term strategy for the food and farming workforce beyond 2021.
Asked by: Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
Whether he plans to maintain food and drink standards after the transition period.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
This Government is committed to upholding our high environmental, food safety and animal welfare standards as we leave the EU. The EU Withdrawal Act will transfer all existing food safety provisions, including existing import requirements, onto the UK statute book after the Transition Period. These requirements include a ban on using artificial growth hormones in domestic and imported products, and set out that no products, other than potable water, are approved to decontaminate poultry carcasses.
Our manifesto is clear that in all of our trade negotiations, we will not compromise on our high environmental protection, animal welfare and food standards.
We are already engaging with the agricultural sector as part of our trade discussions and we will continue to work closely with the National Farmers’ Union and other relevant stakeholders across the food chain to understand the concerns about the impact of new trade deals, as well as the opportunities. The Government has in place a range of stakeholder groups to feed into our policy development on trade. These include the Strategic Trade Advisory Group, the Agri-Food Expert Trade Advisory Group and various supply chain groups.