Poultry

(asked on 1st June 2018) - 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 steps his Department is taking to ensure the maintenance of the poultry meat sector workforce after the UK leaves the EU.


Answered by
George Eustice Portrait
George Eustice
This question was answered on 7th June 2018

Access to a sufficient and appropriately-skilled workforce is essential to continued industry growth, productivity and safety. We are working with industry to ensure that we understand the labour supply and demand across the food chain, including the poultry sector, and the effect of leaving the EU.

Until we have left the EU, employers can continue to recruit EU workers to meet their labour needs. In December 2017 the UK Government reached an agreement with the EU that will allow those EU citizens to work and live here broadly as they do now.

Defra is working closely with the Home Office as we work towards developing a new immigration system following our departure from the EU. As part of this, the Government has commissioned the independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to assess the role that EU citizens play in the UK economy and society.

For the longer term, Defra is working with industry to raise awareness of the career opportunities within the agriculture and food industry to attract domestic workers, and is exploring the potential for innovation and automation in meeting future labour demands.

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