§ Baroness Davidasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they intend to issue their consultation document on the review of the Working Holidaymaker Scheme and how they plan to consult on the development of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers' Scheme. [HL4567]
§ Lord RookerWe said in our recent White PaperSecure Borders, Safe Haven—Integration with Diversity in Modern Britain that we wanted to review the long-established Working Holidaymaker Scheme.
We are issuing a consultation document tomorrow and I am arranging for copies to be placed in the Library. The text will also be available from the Home Office Immigration and Nationality Directorate website at http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/default.asp?pageid = 2830.
As the White Paper said, the main aims of the review are to make the scheme more inclusive of the whole Commonwealth, to reduce abuse and to remove any unnecessary employment restrictions. The consultation document requests comments on a number of questions relating to entry criteria, employment restrictions and end of stay, as well as raising the possibility of extending the scheme to 137WA other countries. The document considers the issue of whether the United Kingdom should introduce a new scheme for citizens of those candidate countries that it is thought will join the European Union in 2004, using the Working Holidaymaker Scheme as a model.
We are inviting comments on the consultation document by Friday, 23 August 2002.
In the White Paper we also undertook to look again at the Seasonal Agricultural Workers' Scheme to see how it might better meet the needs of the agricultural sector. So today we are also making available a paper on this scheme that will be the focus of a series of consultation meetings with key stakeholders, representatives of farmers, growers, sector associations, trade unions and the scheme operators.