On Tuesday 18 October the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee will be taking evidence from two panels of witnesses as part of its inquiry on the UK’s labour supply.

At 3pm the committee will hear from:

David Sheen, Public Affairs Director, UK Hospitality
Kris Hamer, Director of Insight, British Retail Consortium.

At 4pm the committee will hear from:

Nadra Ahmed OBE, Chairman, National Care Association
Tom Bradshaw, Deputy President, National Farmers Union.

The meeting will be held in Committee Room 4A of the House of Lords. It will also be streamed live on Parliament TV.

Topics the committee is likely to cover in these sessions include:

Main causes of labour shortages in the hospitality, retail, care and farming sectors.
Balance of push factors for the over-50s who have left the labour force.
Problems caused by long-term sickness.
Impact of changes to migration in the hospitality, retail, care and farming sectors.
Why wages are not going up faster in sectors or occupations where there are high vacancies.
Whether people are re-joining the workforce due to cost-of-living pressures.

More about this inquiry

Vacancies are still at record levels and above pre-pandemic levels in all industries. The committee is seeking to understand the main causes of the reduction in the size of the labour force, and it will explore data on the types of people who have left the labour market.

The committee is also interested in what differences exist between labour market trends in the UK compared with those in other developed countries.