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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has to reintroduce an extension of the Seasonal Workers Pilot to include poultry workers.

Our points-based system allows for many roles in poultry production to use the Skilled Worker route, such as poultry processors, bird dressers, pluckers, trussers and butchers for all meats. UK employers can additionally make use of the EU Settled Status Scheme for these roles, which allows EU nationals to travel to and work in the UK. The Government encourages all sectors to make employment more attractive to UK domestic workers through offering training, careers options, wage increases and to invest in increased automation technology.

Although the Government has no current plans to reintroduce the scheme for temporary visas to poultry workers in 2022, we will continue to monitor the position. Defra works closely with the Home Office to ensure there is a long term strategy for the food and farming workforce into the future.