Defra is in ‘serious discussions’ with the Home Office on extending the length of the seasonal workers scheme visa, farming minister Mark Spencer told the final hearing of the House of Lords horticultural sector inquiry at the beginning of September.
Replying to questions on the government’s expected response to the Shropshire review of labour shortages, Mr Spencer said the Home Office was now ‘really engaged’ with Defra on the issue. The Shropshire review had put forward “a number of innovative ideas that we want to consider,” he said.
Extending visas to nine months would introduce more flexibility to enable workers to move between farms during the course of a season.
Questioned by inquiry chairman Lord Redesdale about dropping plans for a horticulture strategy, Mr Spencer said Defra had already committed to many of the actions the NFU had asked for in its strategy paper. “While strategies can be useful they are also snapshots in time and in such a fast-changing situation we’ve decided to concentrate on action rather than documentation,” he said.
He told the committee: “For the first time in my political and farming history I believe we have a prime minister who is very engaged in [the sector] as demonstrated by the Downing Street summit in May. No 10 wants to make sure we are focused in the right direction.”
Work on the government inquiry into fairness in the fresh produce supply chain will start in October, Mr Spencer told the Lords. He agreed there was ‘some evidence of imbalance of power’ and a need to ‘share profits equitably’ and said that, as seen recently in the egg sector, sustainability of producers went hand in hand with availability and affordability.
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