The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, George Eustice, said the government was considering potential changes to the Seasonal Agricultural Workers’ Scheme (SAWS) to alleviate the impact of the labour shortage.

Changing the focus of SAWS

According to the BBC, Eustice said there are “some real concerns about how we’ll deal with that spike in demand in the two weeks up to Christmas”. He continued: “We have SAWS and we’re looking at options as to how we can change the focus of that and we hope to be able to say something on this shortly.”

SAWS is a government-run scheme that has enabled the recruitment of temporary migrants for specific roles in the horticultural sector. Since its expansion in December last year, the scheme has allowed 30,000 temporary workers to enter the UK and fill vacancies – mainly in the picking and packing of produce.

Brexit not “the culprit”

Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps told Sky News that “people that point to Brexit” as if it is “the culprit” of the current shortage are wrong. He continued: “There are very large, and even larger shortages, in other EU countries – like Poland and Germany, which clearly can’t be to do with Brexit.”

Shapps added that, because of Brexit, the government has been able to change the law and alter the way UK driving tests operate “in a way [we] could not have done as part of the EU.”

The minister went on to state that “Brexit has provided part of the solution, of giving more slots available for HGV tests.” He added: “There are twice as many tests available now as there were before the pandemic.”