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<p><ins class="ministerial">The Seasonal Worker visa route was specifically designed
to support the horticulture sector in the United Kingdom where growers typically require
higher volumes of labour, for relatively short-term periods of time, in line with
seasonal production peaks.</ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial">As announced on 24
December 2021, the Seasonal Worker visa route will continue to operate until at least
the end of 2024. A total of 40,000 visas are available in 2022, of which 38,000 were
for horticulture with the remaining 2,000 allocated to poultry workers in the run
up to Christmas. HM Government is carefully considering the position on visa quotas
for 2023 and we will say more in due course.</ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial">HM
Government closely monitors the Seasonal Worker visa route to ensure its effective
operation, and works closely with industry to make sure that the workforce requirements
for the food and farming sector are understood across government.</ins></p><p><del
class="ministerial">Over recent months the Government, predominantly through the Department
for Transport and Defra, has had a sustained dialogue with haulage companies and other
organisations involved in the goods supply chain, as well as ministers and officials
in the Devolved Administrations. This has included ministerial and industry roundtables,
industry summits and tailored workshops.</del></p><p><del class="ministerial">Through
this dialogue, we have been able to strengthen communication between government and
industry and discuss issues and solutions, on a range of matters that have the potential
to cause disruption to UK supply networks, especially with regard to the supply of
food. This includes logistics issues at ports of entry for goods entering the UK,
labour shortages across the supply chain (particularly lorry drivers), and the domestic
supply of carbon dioxide.</del></p>
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