To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs for his assessment of (i) staffing levels in the Northern Irish meat industry; and (ii) how migrant worker levels have contributed to this.

I am very aware of the labour shortage issues facing the meat processing sector and I have been engaging extensively with stakeholders from across our food processing sector about their concerns on this issue.

Despite employers offering competitive wages and other incentives, there is reported to be a significant and growing shortfall. This is because for a significant period of time we have relied on migrant workers to fill this labour gap. According to Labour Force Survey statistics, migrant workers made up 10.7% of total employment in the agri-food sector in 2020, down from 20.6% in 2019. Stakeholders have indicated that the new UK Immigration System is making it extremely difficult for them to continue to employ migrant workers and they have identified the English language requirement as a particular barrier to entry for those skill levels where it is possible to obtain working visas.

This is obviously a very worrying situation and I am committed to help mitigate the problem but as you know Immigration Policy is a reserved matter so my focus has been ongoing communication with top levels of Government in Whitehall to highlight the severity of the problems to help remedy the situation as quickly as possible.