bSqlUT91
type: Answer
type: WrittenAnswer
answer has question: phgnQKFo
answer has answering person: YWnDvo84
answer text: Defra is working closely with industry to help our world-leading growers, farmers and food producers access the labour they need. The Seasonal Worker visa route is currently available to the horticulture and poultry sectors across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland through to the end of 2024. The visa route allows overseas workers to come to the United Kingdom for up to six months to harvest both edible and ornamental crops and to help with the pre-Christmas surge in demand for poultry. For 2023 and 2024, 45,000 visas have been made available to the horticulture sector (plus 2,000 for poultry), with the potential for a further 10,000 visas available for horticulture if necessary. The additional 10,000 visas are contingent on sponsors and growers improving and abiding by worker welfare standards as previously agreed. This visa allocation will provide clarity and confidence to Northern Ireland businesses, who are seeking to plan for 2023 and 2024 harvests. We will keep labour market data under very careful scrutiny to monitor any pressures in key sectors. Defra is also working closely with the Home Office to make sure that the requirements for these sectors are understood across Government. The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain, as demonstrated throughout the Covid-19 response. It is well equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption. Our high degree of food security is built on supply from diverse sources; strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes. We produce 61% of all the food we need, and 74% of food which we can grow or rear in the UK for all or part of the year, and these figures have changed little over the last 20 years. UK consumers have access through international trade to food products that cannot be produced here, or at least not on a year-round basis. This supplements domestic production, and also ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does n…
answer given date: 2023-06-06+01:00
answer has answering body: 5LQ5Ar74
written answer has answering body: 5LQ5Ar74