Agriculture: Seasonal Workers

(asked on 13th January 2022) - View Source

Question to the Scotland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what assessment he has made of the impact of the proposed reductions in the number of Seasonal Agricultural Worker visa routes from 2023 on the fruit and vegetable industry in Scotland.


Answered by
Alister Jack Portrait
Alister Jack
Secretary of State for Scotland
This question was answered on 18th January 2022

The UK Government is extending this visa route until the end of 2024, to allow migrant workers to come to the UK for up to six months to pick both edible and ornamental crops. There will be 30,000 visas available until 2023 when it will begin to taper down, but this will be kept under review with the potential to increase by a further 10,000 if necessary.

We appreciate that growers in Scotland are reliant on workers from overseas, nevertheless the UK Government is committed to the UK becoming a high-skilled, high-wage economy and we are clear that more must be done to attract UK workers into jobs through offering training, career options, wage increases, and to invest in increased automation technology. The extension to the route strikes the right balance of supporting the horticulture sector while it transitions to employing more domestic workers.

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