Labour shortages causing damage to businesses.
Rural Affairs Secretary has called for ‘meaningful
engagement’ with the UK Government over issues impacting Scottish
food and drink businesses.
Writing on Friday (23 Feb), she again called for a meeting with
the UK Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs to discuss red tape and labour shortages that are
seriously impeding the sector.
The letter said:
Dear Steve,
I have written repeatedly now, and to successive UK Government
Ministers, to highlight the scourge of labour shortages on our
invaluable food and drink sector. I have to say that I am
confounded at the lack of substantive response that I have
received.
The only conclusion that I can draw reasonably from this, is an
apparent lack of interest, on the part of the UK Government about
this very significant issue and which is of great importance to
the sector, as highlighted by it again in its joint letter to the
UK Government of 06 February 2024.
That letter recognises that UK migration policy may not be the
only answer to labour shortages but also urges the UK Government
to recognise it is a very significant factor. It says ‘the UK
requires a sustained high level of annual net migration to
maintain the size of the UK’s workforce in the context of our
ageing population. Businesses who cannot recruit people into key
positions will ultimately fail, and that has a knock-on effect
across the supply chain and the wider economy.
In effect, the post-Brexit loss of EU nationals has led to
significant and immediate gaps in labour that cannot be quickly
or easily replaced. This is particularly true for those parts of
the sector that have traditionally relied on migrant labour and
who are now feeling that loss most keenly.
Surely, we all have a shared interest in a UK immigration system
that ensures business can access the labour that they have very
clearly said they need. The joint letter from industry could not
be clearer about that message.
It highlights that recent UK Government announcements about
migration policy, such as the adjustments to the Skilled Worker
Visa salary thresholds (to increase the minimum earnings
threshold from £26,200 to £38,700) have the potential to impact
seriously on our food and drink sector.
We also continue to await your government’s response to the 30
June 2023 independent review of labour shortages in the food
supply chain in England. I have written repeatedly to UK
Government Ministers to ask for early sight of your response to
that significant review given that any actions that the UK
Government takes, in light of the review, could make a real
difference to help address labour shortages.
The UK Government response was expected last autumn, and I
understand that it has since been deferred until early this year,
but we still have no information about exactly when it will issue
or whether we or the other devolved governments will receive
advance sight of it. At the same time, the sector is beset by an
array of issues.
While it is bad enough to attribute those issues to the continued
legacy of Brexit, some of these (e.g. UK Government proposals to
extend the ‘not for EU’ labelling requirements beyond the terms
of the Windsor Framework, so that they apply to certain agri-food
products GB-wide, rather than just those products destined for
Northern Ireland) seem to be choices taken by the UK Government.
On the face of it, these seem arbitrary and are likely to have a
disproportionate impact on industry. This is also at a time when
further red tape, from import controls, are pending with checks
ramping up in April and beyond and consumers are already bearing
the burden of added food costs.
All of this points to UK policies that continue to be made
without due consideration of economic impacts on, or meaningful
consultation with, the industries most affected by it, including
our sensitive seafood and red meat sectors. Rather than my having
to resort yet again to another letter about all of these issues,
it would be best for us to meet to discuss how we can work
together effectively to try to make some headway to support the
sector.
This could be at our next EFRA portfolio inter-ministerial group
meeting, together with the other devolved governments, and/or in
a bilateral meeting with you. I would hope that, in doing so, you
can reverse the trend of poor UK Government Ministerial
representation at these very important meetings.
Instead, we should work together to help address the cumulative
impacts on the sector. This approach is surely in the best
interests of the sector that, amongst others, we are in
Government to represent.
I am copying this letter to , Cabinet
Secretary for Social Justice; , Cabinet Secretary for
Wellbeing Economy, Net Zero and Energy; , Minister for Equalities,
Migration and Refugees; MP, Secretary of State for
the Home Department; MP, Minister of State for
Food, Farming and Fisheries; , Minister for the
Economy; , Minister for Rural
Affairs and North Wales and Trefnydd in the Welsh Government; and
to , Minister for Agriculture,
Environment and Rural Affairs in the Northern Ireland Executive.
Yours sincerely,
MAIRI GOUGEON