Seasonal workers: Agriculture

(asked on 11th March 2025) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Health and Safety Executive Inspections of farms employing workers on the Seasonal Worker visa were conducted in each of the last five years in (a) Scotland, (b) England and (c) Wales.


Answered by
Stephen Timms Portrait
Stephen Timms
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 17th March 2025

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety, this includes workplace health and safety risks created in agriculture.

The table below shows the total number of farm inspections carried out by HSE over the last 5 years in Scotland, England and Wales. HSE’s farm inspection programme over those years focused on health and safety standards on site for all workers. No farm inspection programmes over the last 5 years were focused exclusively on one group of farm workers such as seasonal workers. If during a farm site visit, matters directly affecting a specific group or number of workers on a particular site were identified by the inspector, they would be dealt with accordingly.

Please see the figures for farm inspections conducted in each of the last five years in (a) Scotland, (b) England and (c) Wales:

:

Number of Farm Inspections*

YEAR**

Scotland

England

Wales

Total

2019/20

143

534

18

695

2020/21

34

174

4

212

2021/22

70

263

59

392

2022/23

105

627

51

783

2023/24

22

424

34

480

2024/25

7

62

7

76

*defined by the Nature of business: Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes

** years commencing 1st April

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