Seasonal workers: Agriculture
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Health and Safety Executive Inspections of farms employing workers on the Seasonal Worker visa were conducted in each of the last five years in (a) Scotland, (b) England and (c) Wales.
Answered by Sir Stephen Timms
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety, this includes workplace health and safety risks created in agriculture.
The table below shows the total number of farm inspections carried out by HSE over the last 5 years in Scotland, England and Wales. HSE’s farm inspection programme over those years focused on health and safety standards on site for all workers. No farm inspection programmes over the last 5 years were focused exclusively on one group of farm workers such as seasonal workers. If during a farm site visit, matters directly affecting a specific group or number of workers on a particular site were identified by the inspector, they would be dealt with accordingly.
Please see the figures for farm inspections conducted in each of the last five years in (a) Scotland, (b) England and (c) Wales:
:
| Number of Farm Inspections* | |||
YEAR** | Scotland | England | Wales | Total |
2019/20 | 143 | 534 | 18 | 695 |
2020/21 | 34 | 174 | 4 | 212 |
2021/22 | 70 | 263 | 59 | 392 |
2022/23 | 105 | 627 | 51 | 783 |
2023/24 | 22 | 424 | 34 | 480 |
2024/25 | 7 | 62 | 7 | 76 |
*defined by the Nature of business: Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes |
** years commencing 1st April |
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