. in the food and farming sector, including using quantitative and qualitative data from both Government and industry sources. Given the importance of seasonal labour in horticulture for bringing in the harvest, Defra monitors labour market data in this sector especially closely, working with the operators of the Seasonal Worker visa route to understand the number of seasonal workers in the UK. Labour shortages in the food and farming sector: Government response 5 However, we are aware of limitations with existing datasets on the wider food and farming workforce. In particular, many available datasets are aggregate in nature, making it difficult to be conclusive about the exact level of vacancies in some agricultural sectors. possible picture of the food and farming workforce is available to inform decision making. Skilled Worker route