Horticulture has long relied on seasonal workers to bring home the harvest. After a series of annual pilots the government announced last December that the Seasonal Worker visa route has been extended to 2024 to allow overseas workers to come to the UK for up to six months to harvest both edible and ornamental crops. An initial allocation of 30,000 visas was made available for 2022, which will be increased to 40,000 (including 2000 for the poultry sector). Defra continues to monitor the supply of labour to UK horticulture throughout the year, working with operators and sector growers to ensure there is sufficient labour for harvesting the UK's fruit and vegetable crops.

My noble friend makes a very important point, and she referred continually throughout the passage of the Health and Care Act to practices in rural areas. We have looked at the challenges and have asked GPs about this in surveys, and we know that there are problems about the reduction of working hours, administrative burdens, some stress and burnout, and some issues about equitable distribution. One thing we do have is the Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme launched in 2016, which has attracted hundreds of doctors to train in hard-to-recruit areas by providing a one-off financial incentive.

The Government recognise that growing the GP workforce is challenging, particularly in light of pressures from the pandemic. There are over 1,400 more full-time equivalent doctors in general practice in March this year compared with March 2019, showing that there is some movement in the right direction. However, we need to go further, and we are working with NHS England and NHS Improvement, Health Education England and the profession to boost recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave and encourage them to stay or return to practice.

We continue to monitor the evolving situation and to work closely with the pig industry to help them respond to challenges caused by the pandemic, including the loss of exports to the Chinese market for certain pig processors, disruption to CO2 supplies, and a temporary shortage of labour in the processing sector. This has led to a growing backlog of pigs on farms, which can pose challenges to animal welfare.

We have provided a package of measures to help address these unique circumstances, which includes temporary work visas for up to 800 pork butchers, and Private Storage Aid (PSA) and Slaughter Incentive Payment (SIP) schemes to facilitate an increase in the throughput of pigs through abattoirs. Together with the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) and other Government Departments, we are working to both expand existing markets and to identify new export markets for pork, particularly lightly processed pork. We are also working with industry to support their efforts on the recruitment and retention of domestic workers.

On 10 February, the Farming Minister Victoria Prentis chaired a roundtable with pig industry representatives from across the UK to discuss the challenges that the sector has been facing in recent months. We are launching a UK-wide review of supply chain fairness in the pig sector. We will be engaging with industry on this straight away, with a consultation expected later this year. We want to elicit industry views on improvements to fairness and transparency that could be made to ensure a profitable and productive future.

We have also introduced additional flexibility to the SIP scheme to further encourage uptake and reduce the backlog. This will remove all restrictions on the end destination of products killed during SIP shifts from 18 February.

It is the responsibility of the registered keeper or owner to ensure the health and welfare of the animals in their care and to apply and adjust contingency plans, in response to a changing situation. Contingency plans may involve movement of animals to another holding, or on-farm culling of animals that are suffering, or at imminent risk of suffering, adverse welfare impacts. Farms have contingency plans to deal with short-term disruptions. In some cases, this has resulted in animals being culled on-farm to prevent animal welfare issues or to address issues that have arisen.

While the shortage of butchers has reduced the opportunity for processors to butcher meat, particularly for the domestic retail market, it has not impacted the number of pigs slaughtered. Defra records show that the number of pigs slaughtered throughout 2021 was higher than the 5-year average. GB Pig slaughter numbers were up by 0.2 million to 11.4 million pigs in January-November 2021, compared to the same period 2020. Slaughter numbers were also 0.3m or 3% higher than the 2018-20 average.

In December 2021, the Government published the UK Food Security Report, an analysis of statistical data on food security. This is the first in a series of reports to be published triennially. This landmark report shows we have a resilient and stable food supply-chain which adapted quickly throughout the pandemic. Perishable products across the food supply chain have continued to be delivered to meet demand.

Defra has well established ways of working with the industry and across Government to monitor risks that may arise. This includes extensive, regular and ongoing engagement in preparedness for, and response to, issues with the potential to cause disruption to food supply chains.

We are engaging with the food industry to collect evidence to devise appropriate solutions to alleviate supply chain bottlenecks.

Some of these Government-led key measures include: the Driver and Vehicle Standard Agency's action to increase HGV tests to 3,000 per week; the Department for Transport's 16-week skills bootcamps to train new and returning drivers; and the streamlining of the HGV testing regulatory framework, increasing testing capacity by around 50,000.

In addition, the Transport Secretary has relaxed driver hours regulation, allowing more flexibility in response to supply disruptions from the Omicron variant. This relaxation will last until 10 February 2022 in England, Scotland, and Wales.

No formal assessment has been made. Safe staffing levels remain the responsibility of local clinical and other leaders, supported by national guidance and regulated by the Care Quality Commission.

The monthly workforce statistics for October 2021 show that there over 1.2 million full time equivalent staff in the National Health Service. Since October 2020, there are 4,800 more doctors, over 10,900 more nurses and over 44,700 more NHS Health and Community Hospital Services staff in total. We are on schedule to deliver 50,000 more nurses by the end of this Parliament and we have funded an additional 1,500 undergraduate medical school places each year for domestic students in England.

We have provided £462.5 million to local authorities and social care providers for recruitment and retention in the sector, expanded the Health and Care Visa to include care workers and we have launched the Made with Care recruitment campaign, running until March 2022.

I am very happy to work with the UK Warehousing Association on any measures we can take to increase the number of forklift truck drivers coming through. In return, I would really like the UK Warehousing Association to encourage its members to provide decent facilities and places to have a rest for HGV drivers when they are dropping off.

My Lords, the Government hold regular meetings with the road haulage industry regarding driver shortages and the impact on supply chains. On 16 June, I hosted an industry round table, alongside the Employment Minister. We are supporting HGV driver training through apprenticeships and training for jobseekers, and encouraging drivers who need to renew their driver’s certificate of professional competence to return to the sector.

If my noble friend does not mind, I shall focus on the first of those questions. First, I welcome any more pay for professional drivers, because they do an outstanding job. I recognise what my noble friend says about diversity. It is a very white, male sector. There are huge opportunities for the sector to diversify and, when it comes up with plans to do so—for example, Logistics UK’s Year of Logistics, which I hope we will get under way soon—I will be very happy to support them.

The Universal Jobmatch System was introduced in November 2012. The system does not provide data for travel-to-work areas. However, I can confirm the number of live jobs on the system in these towns at 8 April 2014.

Headline figures on the number of unfilled vacancies at a point in time are published by the Office for National Statistics, based on a regular survey of employers. The sample size of the survey is, however, too small to allow information to be published below national level.

Administrative data on the number of unfilled vacancies held locally by Jobcentre Plus were published until the end of last year and can be accessed by following this link

http://www.nomisweb.co.uk/query/construct/summary.asp?mode=construct&version=0&dataset=89

and selecting the 'live unfilled' vacancies variable and the relevant geography and time period.

Any snapshot of unfilled Jobcentre vacancies at a point in time misses the regular turnover of new vacancies that are notified as existing opportunities are filled. It also misses jobs available in the wider labour market, including those outside the local constituency, and those coming up through other recruitment channels or filled by direct approaches to employers or word of mouth.

Universal Jobmatch has replaced the previous Jobcentre Plus system of taking vacancies. Information on vacancies reported through the new service is not currently available for parliamentary constituencies. Some information, including notified vacancies at local authority level, is available from the Universal Jobmatch management information tool

https://jobsearch.direct.gov.uk/Reports/Reports.aspx

and selecting number of new jobs and the relevant geography and time period. DWP is working with Monster Worldwide Limited, the Universal Jobmatch supplier, on a timetable for prioritising and implementing improvements to the available Ml, including breakdowns by parliamentary constituency, subject to funding.

Based on the jobs advertised on the Universal Jobmatch service, the number of live job vacancies as at 27 June 2013 in the Thirsk and Malton parliamentary constituency was 68.

Based on the jobs advertised on Universal Jobmatch, the number of live job vacancies as at 22 May 2013 in Thirsk and Malton parliamentary constituency is 72. Information regarding job vacancies in the travel to work area for this parliamentary constituency is not

available from the Universal Jobmatch management information system from which job vacancy data is taken.

In the three months to November 2012, the most recent period for which data is currently available, in Thirsk and Malton constituency employers reported over 1,800 new vacancies to Jobcentre Plus (JCP). Not all vacancies in the area would have been recorded on the JCP system, as some will be advertised through other recruitment methods or through word of mouth. In addition, some jobseekers in the constituency will be looking at vacancies outside the immediate area.

A new service, Universal Jobmatch (UJ), has now replaced the previous system through which employers reported vacancies to Jobcentre Plus. It is still a new system and while some statistics on vacancies available through UJ are published via the Directgov website:

www.direct.gov.uk

more detailed breakdowns, including by parliamentary constituency area, are not yet available. The intention is to have a broadly similar set of data available to that under the previous Jobcentre Plus vacancy system and we are working towards this.