Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure an adequate supply of labour for the (i) catering and (ii) hospitality industries after the introduction of controls on low-skilled workers from the (A) EU and (B) overseas.

This Government will reduce lower skilled migration. Free movement is ending, and we will not simply replicate it in a future system.

We need to shift the focus of our economy away from a reliance on cheap labour from Europe and immigration must also be considered alongside investment in technology, innovation, automation and the development of the UK’s domestic labour force.

Employers need to focus on investing in the people already here and make jobs more attractive for UK workers.

Businesses can continue to be able to rely on those EU/EEA nationals living in the UK with settled or pre-settled status and those who come to the UK through youth mobility schemes.

We are also committed to quadrupling the Seasonal Workers scheme for agriculture for non EEA nationals from 2,500 to 10,000 places.

As the future system is developed we will continue to engage with stakeholders form a range of industries and take advice from the independent Migration Advisory Committee.