… The Worker Interest Group is a coalition of 9 not for profit organisations based in the UK that are actively supporting and representing or proactively engaging with seasonal horticultural workers under the UK’s Seasonal Worker visa.

We, as some members of the group, are writing to raise queries on aspects of the government response to the House of Lords Horticultural Sector Committee Report of session 2022-23, published February 2024. For ease of reference we have included in full the relevant Committee recommendations (in red), the government response to each (in blue) and below (in black) each of our comments. We ask the Committee to raise these with Defra and any other stakeholders that the Committee thinks is relevant…

… There is an urgent need for transparency on the scheme, especially in light of continued evidence of risks for workers who use the route to travel to the UK to support our horticulture industry, and the very low independent representation of these workers. These reviews, together with further scrutiny of risks to workers, should inform the future of the scheme and should be published before any decision is made or announced on the future of the scheme, together with structural changes to address known risks to workers travelling to the UK…