Horticulture: Seasonal Workers
(asked on 27th June 2017) - View Source
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect of closure of the seasonal agricultural workers scheme on the economic output of the horticultural industry of (a) the UK and (b) Scotland since 2014.
The Seasonal Agricultural workers scheme was closed in 2013, on the advice of the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC).
Defra has been monitoring the economic output of the horticultural industry and there has been an increase in output in real terms between 2014 and 2016 (latest available data) for both the UK and Scotland.
According to Agriculture UK 2016[1], output of vegetables and horticultural products in the UK saw an increase of £128 million in real terms between 2014 and 2016. Output of fruit in the UK saw an increase of £68 million from 2014-2015 with a subsequent decrease of £34 million in 2016 in real terms.
Output of the horticultural industry in Scotland increased between 2014 and 2015 by £25.1 million in total. These figures have been taken from the Scottish Government website.[2]