Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of the budget for the Seasonal Worker Pilot is allocated to international agents working with the providers of that scheme.

The Seasonal Worker pilot scheme is managed by four operators which are not engaged on a contractual basis but are chosen by requests for information managed by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). Those organisations selected through the DEFRA process are licensed by the Home Office under its sponsorship regime. The Government does not allocate a budget to their overseas agents.

Each operator manages changes of employment for the workers they sponsor. We monitor this information closely, but it is not directly held on Home Office systems.

The Seasonal Worker pilot scheme is subject to ongoing review activity and we will make an assessment of it prior to a decision whether to extend its provisions into future years. We will publish the 2019 evaluation shortly.