My Lords, encouraging and supporting the agricultural workforce is essential. Farming can be a dangerous occupation, and accidents often happen on farms. Ensuring that the workforce is properly trained, with formal relevant qualifications, and is properly paid, with their mental and physical health properly catered for, will ensure that agriculture as a sector goes from strength to strength. The right skills are not an optional extra. The noble Lord, Lord Whitty, supported the amendment passionately, as did the noble Baroness, Lady Ritchie of Downpatrick.
During the lockdown we have seen how important it is to have a sufficient supply of seasonal workers to pick the crops and work on the farms during their busiest period. It is estimated that over a 12-month period, some 17,000 additional migrant workers will be needed on our farms throughout the UK—although the noble Lord, Lord Northbrook, gave a slightly different figure. It is essential that the Government ensure that workers are available to harvest crops, and the success in recent years in the expansion of soft fruit growing will be adversely affected by the proposed regulations.
The noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Whitchurch, fully made the case for her amendment, and I support her comments about the need to direct and have a proper employed workforce. The noble Lord, Lord Carrington, gave some statistics about the age of current farmers: less than 35% of them are classified as what we would call “young”. The noble Lord, Lord Northbrook, made
the same speech and the same points as I did on yesterday’s immigration Second Reading, so there is political agreement across the House on this issue.
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My noble friend Lord Teverson raised the issue of the recruitment and supply of vets. It is essential that we have sufficient vets for the agriculture sector to function properly. As he said, 95% of commercial sector vets come from the EU 27 countries, and that affects our country’s biosecurity strategy. Can the Minister say what steps the Government are taking to ensure that vets, who are on the shortage occupation list, can continue to come to this country after Brexit?
The noble Lord, Lord Naseby, spoke from his own experience about the need for qualifications and practical training. He and the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, also spoke about the introduction of robotics. That is not the complete answer, but it will go some way towards meeting the labour shortage. The noble Lords, Lord Judd and Lord Greaves, spoke in favour of Amendment 219, which would require the Government to ensure a sufficient supply of housing for agricultural workers. This is dear to my heart and has been the subject of speeches in the past in a number of debates on different Bills. This matter will not go away by being ignored. Many of your Lordships have spoken of the need to ensure that there is decent affordable housing for those who work not only on the land but in the fishing and other coastal villages around our shores. Given the pressure on this subject, can the Minister reassure us that it is a priority for the Government?
This is a short group of amendments, which could ensure the success of agriculture into the future. So far, the Minister has not been persuaded to accept any of the reasonable and well-argued amendments put forward by noble Lords; I hope that this group will be the exception.