The Government announced today that restrictions for Bulgarian and Romanian workers will continue until the end of 2011.

Skilled and highly skilled workers have been able to come here and have made valuable contributions to our economy. Romanian and Bulgarian workers have had access to low-skilled work through two quota based schemes:  the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme (SAWS) and the Sectors Based Scheme (SBS) for food processing.

We extended the restrictions at the end of the Migration Advisory Committee, which gave weight to the fact that the UK economy was entering a recession. The Government announced that it would review these restrictions before the end of 2009. It has done so. The Government’s view is that the UK is continuing to experience labour market disturbance and that the existing restrictions should therefore continue.

The Government has also announced that the quotas for low-skilled jobs will remain at their current levels – 21,250 SAWS places and 3,500 SBS places – next year.

These decisions to keep restrictions in place will mean that the UK continues to benefit from the positive economic contribution Bulgarian and Romanian workers make, whilst controlling and monitoring the impacts of their accession on the labour market and the UK as a whole.

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