Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department has taken to safeguard public health in connection with the supply of antibiotic-dosed meat to supermarkets.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Responsible use of antibiotics is an essential part of veterinary medicine: these medicines are needed to treat bacterial disease in animals. The UK Government is committed to reducing unnecessary use of antibiotics in animals whilst safeguarding animal health and welfare and antibiotic use in animals has reduced by 55% since 2014.
In the UK, antibiotics for animal use must be prescribed by a veterinary surgeon and we have strict maximum residue limits for food-producing animals. There is a comprehensive programme of statutory sampling and testing in place in the UK to look for residues of veterinary medicines, prohibited substances and contaminants in foodstuffs – this programme includes testing for a range of antibiotics, ensuring that they are being used in UK livestock in accordance with their authorisation. This activity is coordinated by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) in GB, and the results of testing and investigations are published on GOV.UK (link) on a quarterly and annual basis.
Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether (a) current and (b) former workers on the horticultural seasonal worker visa were given the opportunity to inform the independent review into labour shortages in the food supply chain, published on 30 June 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Independent Review of Labour Shortages in the Food Supply Chain was published on June 30th, 2023. 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.
The Government will consider the Review’s recommendations and publish a Government response in the autumn.
Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the level of compliance with the legal requirement for fishing vessels to report marine mammal bycatch.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Government recognises that accidental bycatch in fisheries is one of the greatest threats faced by sensitive marine species such as cetaceans, and we remain fully committed to tackling this issue.
The UK introduced new rules in 2021 making it a mandatory requirement under fishing vessel licence conditions for fishers to report any marine mammal bycatch to the Marine Management Organisation (MMO). On the introduction of this requirement, communications were sent out by Defra, the Devolved Administrations and the MMO to ensure that industry understood the new obligations. MMO is planning to communicate again with fishers this summer in order to ensure that rules are clear, and skippers comply with requirements. Responsibility for enforcing licence conditions in Scotland and Northern Ireland is a matter for the Devolved Administrations.
Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the guarantee of a minimum of 32 hours of work every week for people on the seasonal worker visa scheme will be measured (a) on a weekly basis and (b) over a longer period of time; and what steps her Department will take to (i) monitor and (ii) enforce this guarantee.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Sponsors and employers will need to ensure workers on the Seasonal Workers visa route are paid a minimum of 32 hours per week. This must be reflected in payslips covering the pay period for each worker.
A team within the Home Office compliance network will focus specifically on the agricultural sector and ensure sponsors are adhering to guidance and fulfilling their sponsorship responsibilities.
Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to update the list of named sponsors on the notice entitled Seasonal worker visa route RFI notice, published by her Department on 27 June 2022.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Current operators of the Seasonal Workers visa route are listed in the register of licensed sponsors: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/register-of-licensed-sponsors-workers.
We will we updating the RFI Notice webpage in the next few months.
Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
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 27 February 2023 to Question 146808 on Agriculture: Seasonal Workers, if she will make an assessment of the accuracy of the register of licensed sponsors.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The licensed sponsors for all work immigration routes are listed on the Register of Licensed Sponsors: www.gov.uk/government/publications/register-of-licensed-sponsors-workers.
This is updated every day to ensure accuracy.
Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the transparency of the seasonal worker scheme.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The government will continue to provide transparency of the Seasonal Worker visa route.
Defra and the Home Office will soon jointly publish information about the annual surveys of workers undertaken in 2020 and 2021, and information about the visa route covering these same years later in 2023.
The Home Office already publishes quarterly immigration statistics on GOV.UK, and the government published a review of the first year of the seasonal workers pilot in 2019 Seasonal workers pilot review 2019 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to publish increased transparency data on the seasonal worker visa scheme.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The government will continue to provide transparency of the Seasonal Worker visa route.
Defra and the Home Office will soon jointly publish information about the annual surveys of workers undertaken in 2020 and 2021, and information about the visa route covering these same years later in 2023.
The Home Office already publishes quarterly immigration statistics on GOV.UK, and the government published a review of the first year of the seasonal workers pilot in 2019 Seasonal workers pilot review 2019 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
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 27 February to Question 146809 on Agriculture: Seasonal Workers, who is responsible for the welfare of seasonal workers who no longer have a scheme operator due to the removal or suspension of their licence.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The welfare of the people using our visa schemes is always of paramount importance to us, including in the Seasonal Worker scheme.
In the event that a scheme operator for the Seasonal Worker routes became unlicensed for any reason, the Home Office will consider each case on its own merits and tailor its response accordingly. Defra will, where appropriate, support the Home Office in delivering this response. We do not comment on specific cases.
Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which operator offered the lowest guaranteed minimum number of hours on a Seasonal Worker visa in the latest period for which data is available; and how many hours they offered.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The guaranteed minimum number of hours offered by the Seasonal Worker visa operators, and how many hours they offered, is commercially sensitive data. There are no zero hour contracts.