An inquiry into the operation of the seasonal worker visa scheme has been launched by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) – the independent body that advises government – while one of the country’s leading growers has told Parliament the scheme ‘needs a major sort-out’.
MAC chairman Brian Bell said it had launched the inquiry under its own initiative, rather than being commissioned to do so by the government. “We have no fixed view on the merits of the scheme, but believe it is a good time to review it given that it has been in operation for a number of years,” he said.
The inquiry will take ‘a broad perspective’ and consider areas such as the rules under which the scheme operates, its size, scope and costs, the potential for exploitation and poor labour market practice, evidence from international comparisons and the long-term need for such a scheme.
G’s chairman John Shropshire, who is also heading Defra’s review of labour shortages, told the House of Lords horticultural select committee in March that introduction of the seasonal worker visas in 2019 had ‘alleviated what would have been a disaster’ but it now needed to be placed on a longer-term footing with better regulation and enforcement.
“Since the end of the old seasonal worker scheme we’ve been on the back foot,” he said, adding that late announcements of numbers and operators in recent years had left the current scheme ‘open to abuse’.
“Alongside a scheme with longevity we do need regulations and then there has to be enforcement.
“We should be as good as the best in the world and we are really not at the moment and I am troubled by this. It does create a poor image if it is in the newspapers every other week with people who have been paying £3,000 through extortion to get a job in Britain. That’s completely unacceptable.”
Mr Shropshire said part of the review he is leading for Defra includes a look at best-practice regulation and enforcement in other countries. He cited Germany in particular: “It has been taking [the UK] up to six weeks to deal with visa applications; in Germany it takes less than two.”
Poor scheme management last year, he said, had resulted in the industry ploughing in £60 million worth of crops which were replaced with imports from Germany, Poland and Spain. “We do need a scheme managed right from the beginning to end,” he said. “It needs a major sort-out.”
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