Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to help mitigate the potential economic impact of staff shortages in the hospitality sector in the short-term.

I recognise that staff shortages remain an issue, and we are supporting the sector to understand what more we can do domestically. We want to see employers make long-term investments in the UK domestic workforce instead of relying on labour from abroad. The Government encourage all sectors to make employment more attractive to UK domestic workers by offering training, career options, wage increases, and investment. This Department’s Hospitality Strategy focuses on domestic solutions to support the sector’s recovery. I intend to publish an update shortly to set out the progress made against the Strategy so far and proposed next steps.