Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 15 December 2022 to Questions 105495 and 105505 on Visas: Seasonal Workers and 105507 on Agriculture: Seasonal Workers, whether his Department has put accountability structures in place to respond to Scheme Operators who terminate workers' contracts early without offering alternative work placements.

The sponsor licence regime places a broad range of responsibilities on Scheme Operators to ensure that the rights of migrant workers are protected.

We keep these protections under close ongoing review and the route has seen improvements to its worker welfare protections throughout its lifetime. This includes the announcement on 16 December that the Government will introduce rules ensuring seasonal workers are guaranteed a minimum number of paid hours each week, alongside increased compliance capacity to monitor welfare.

The Home Office cannot compel a private organisation to continue sponsoring workers it does not wish to sponsor. We do however expect the Scheme Operators to maximise the work opportunities for participating seasonal workers and we will continue to monitor this situation closely.