Government announces new measures to help ease shortages

The government has announced a new visa scheme for HGV drivers, poultry workers and pork butchers. As part of the scheme, 5,000 HGV drivers, 5,500 poultry workers and 800 pork butchers will be eligible to work in the UK for a limited period of time. The pork and poultry visas are valid until 31 December 2021, with the HGV driver visa valid until 28 February 2022.

For businesses looking to hire HGV drivers or poultry workers, more information can be found here. The CBI is working to find out more information about how firms access the pork butcher visas.

To further ease supply chain problems, the government also announced changes to cabotage rules, which affect the number of deliveries overseas lorry drivers can make in the UK. The changes mean that drivers will be able to make unlimited deliveries or collections within a 14-day period instead of the two pick-ups or drop-offs that are normally allowed each week. The changes come into force on 28 October and are expected to last until 30 April 2022. More information can be found here.

The announcements followed stories from businesses across the economy facing labour shortages and the CBI’s recent media intervention calling on the government to introduce temporary access to visas for shortage roles. As CBI members have been telling us that labour and skills shortages are widespread and affecting numerous sectors - from construction and manufacturing to retail and hospitality – the CBI will continue to call on the government to take action on shortages across the whole economy.

These include:

Temporary access to visas for shortage roles

• Immediately updating the Shortage Occupations List by accepting the Migration Advisory Committee’s September 2020 recommendations and urgently starting a new, comprehensive review
• Treat shortages in skilled HGV drivers the same as other shortages of skilled workers and make them eligible to be added to the Shortage Occupations List

Better targeting of the UK's training systems

• Targeting the Lifetime Skills Guarantee and the wider National Skills Fund at shortage occupations to help job seekers retrain for jobs where they are needed most
• Introduce time-limited additional flexibility to the apprenticeship levy, so that firms can divert funds to train more people for shortage roles where the training that is needed doesn’t match the apprenticeship model.

To find out more or to provide a case study (anonymised if preferred) to help illustrate the impact of shortages across the economy to the government, please contact Katie.