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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the answer of 17 June 2022 to Question 9902, on what basis his Department estimated that between 50,000 and 60,000 seasonal workers are needed annually across the horticultural sector to bring in the harvest.

Defra statistics from the Annual June survey of Agriculture and Horticulture provide a snapshot of seasonal, casual and gang labour workforce numbers working in the whole of agriculture for England, Scotland and Northern Ireland (not including Wales). The figure for this was 57,000 in 2020.

Whilst numbers vary year on year, we estimated approximately 50,000 to 60,000 seasonal workers have been needed annually across the horticulture sector to bring home the harvest.