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We agree that migrant workers should have a reasonable understanding of English to allow them...

Recommendation
We agree that migrant workers should have a reasonable understanding of English to allow them to communicate at work, integrate into their new communities, protect them from exploitation, and ensure health and safety at work. However, we do not believe this requires a blanket approach to the English language requirement, and that a more tailored approach could be taken to support the food and farming sector. The fact that the Minister for Safe and Legal Migration thought that the language level requirement was lower than it really is suggests to us that there should be some room for greater flexibility. Given the Minister for Safe and Legal Migration’s position that Skilled Worker Visa applicants only need “basic conversational English”, we recommend that the Home Office must immediately lower the English language requirement to a “basic user” level (either the A2 or A1 scale) of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages for those Skilled Worker Visa roles in the food and farming sector.
Paragraph Reference
49
Government Response

A response document is linked to this report, dated 23 June 2022. Response attribution to this recommendation has not been verified. Read the response document.

Addressee Bodies
Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs
Timeline
Recommendation age 4.4 yrs
Report published 06 Apr 2022