Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the number of seasonal workers employed in Cornwall in each of the last five years.

The number of seasonal, casual or gang labourers on commercial agricultural holdings^(a) in the South West Region on 1 June in each of the last five years is shown in the table below. County breakdowns are only available for 2013 and 2016, therefore figures for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly are included for these years only.

Seasonal, casual or gang labour^(b)

n/a: not available

Source: Defra June Survey of Agriculture

(a) Commercial holdings are those with significant levels of farming activity. These significant levels are classified as any holding with more than 5 hectares of agricultural land, 1 hectare of orchards, 0.5 hectares of vegetables or 0.1 hectares of protected crops, or more than 10 cows, 50 pigs, 20 sheep, 20 goats or 1,000 poultry.

(b) Seasonal, casual or gang labour is defined as seasonal, casual and gang workers, including family and non-family workers who are usually employed for less than 20 weeks of the year.