You are absolutely right. We have relied on labour from abroad. There are several points to bear in mind. The first is that, over time, the source of labour from different parts of the European Union in our agriculture and food production sectors has changed. A wee while ago, it tended to be people from Poland and the Baltic states. Now, increasingly, it is people from Romania and Bulgaria. That reflects the relative stages of economic development of those countries. As Romania and Bulgaria become more successful economically, they will naturally want to have more of their workforce working in those countries and not going abroad.
That has been the experience not just of the UK but of other countries in the west of Europe that have seen numbers of people from eastern Europe drop in particular sectors, so we all have to look further afield. It is an issue not just for the UK but for other countries in western Europe. That means that, in the future, we will need to think about how workers from, say, the Ukraine, or from other countries, who want to come here can do so in an appropriate fashion.
Having visited soft fruit growers in Angus and elsewhere, I am well aware that seasonal workers are critical, for the moment, in ensuring that growers can continue to run effective businesses. One of the things that we are considering is what appropriate means there could be in the future for facilitating seasonal workers, in order to ensure that those businesses work.
There is one other thing that I would say. We all need the expertise that is provided by EU citizens such as the official veterinarians who make sure that our abattoirs and meat production maintain the very high standards on which our reputations rest. We want to make sure that we can continue to have access to that high-quality labour.
All those things help to influence our approach to migration.