Question reference: S5O-01480
- Asked by: Graeme Dey, MSP for Angus South, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 8 November 2017
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Current status: Answered by Michael Russell on 16 November 2017
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with the soft fruit sector and the UK Government regarding continuing access to a migrant workforce post-Brexit.
Answer
As the member knows, I visited Angus Soft Fruits on 8 May. More recently Fergus Ewing and I met with Laurence Olins, Chairman of British Summer Fruits, and Lochart Porter, Managing Director of Angus Soft Fruits, at the Scottish Parliament last month, to hear about the potentially devastating effect on the sector without continued access to labour from the European Union. Case studies from Angus Soft Fruits and Bruce Farms were presented in “Brexit: What’s at Stake for Businesses?”
It is vital that the sector has continued access to the experienced European workforce to enable the sector to continue to thrive, and it needs clarity now. I have raised the issue at a JMC (EN) meeting and in bilateral discussions, in addition, Fergus Ewing wrote to Michael Gove on 2 November on this issue.