Asked by: Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to publish statutory guidance that defines what constitutes "all reasonable steps" for the purposes of clause 21 of the Employment Rights Bill; and if so, when.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government will ensure businesses have clear guidance on clause 21 (harassment by third parties) of the Employment Rights Bill in advance of the new legislation coming into force in October 2026.
Asked by: Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of immediate sick pay entitlement on small businesses.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government conducted a Regulatory Impact Assessment (which can be found in the attached document) on the changes to strengthen Statutory Sick Pay in the Employment Rights Bill, which was published on 21 October 2024. This includes the impacts on small businesses. Furthermore, the government intends to conduct a post-implementation review of the Employment Rights Bill within five years of implementation.
Asked by: Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce the number of people leaving the labour market due to long-term sickness.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Good work is generally good for health and wellbeing, so we want everyone to get work and get on in work, whoever they are and wherever they live. Backed by £240 million investment, the Get Britain Working White Paper launched last November will drive forward approaches to tackling economic inactivity and work toward the long-term ambition of an 80% employment rate.
Disabled people and people with health conditions are a diverse group so access to the right work and health support, in the right place, at the right time, is key. We therefore have a range of specialist initiatives to support individuals to stay in work and get back into work, including those that join up employment and health systems.
Measures include support from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants, as well as joining up health and employment support around the individual through Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies, Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care and WorkWell.
It is also recognised that employers play an important role in addressing health and disability. To build on this, the DWP and DHSC Joint Work & Health Directorate (JWHD) is facilitating “Keep Britain Working”, an independent review of the role of UK employers in reducing health-related inactivity and to promote healthy and inclusive workplaces. The lead reviewer, Sir Charlie Mayfield, is expected to bring forward recommendations in Autumn 2025.
In our March Green Paper, we set out our Pathways to Work Guarantee, backed by £1 billion a year of new additional funding by 2030. We will build towards a guaranteed offer of personalised work, health and skills support for all disabled people and those with health conditions on out of work benefits.
The 10 Year Health Plan, published in July, stated our intention to break down barriers to opportunity by delivering the holistic support that people need to access and thrive in employment by ensuring a better health service for everyone, regardless of condition or service area. The Plan sets out the vision for what good joined-up care looks like for people with a combination of health and care needs, including for disabled people. Furthermore, it outlines how the neighbourhood health service will join up support from across the work, health and skills systems to help address the multiple complex challenges that often stop people finding and staying in work.
Asked by: Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many additional judges and caseworks have been appointed to support employment tribunals in addressing the backlog of cases since July 2024.
Answered by Baroness Levitt - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
We are maintaining investment in the annual recruitment of about 1,000 judges and tribunal members across all jurisdictions. Annual recruitment requirements are determined by business need and judicial departures.
Since July 2024, 50 fee-paid Employment Judges (EJs) have been appointed, whilst 19 salaried EJs were appointed throughout 2024. Recruitment for up to 36 salaried EJs commenced in March 2025 and recruitment for 50 fee-paid EJs will commence in early 2026. As reported in the 2025 Judicial Diversity Statistics, there were 165 salaried and 143 fee-paid EJs in post in England and Wales as of 1 April 2025.
Since July 2024, we have also appointed an additional 6 caseworkers (legal officers) to support Employment Tribunals. There are currently just over 32 FTE legal officers in post.
Asked by: Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential impact of the day-one right to not be unfairly dismissed on employment tribunal caseloads.
Answered by Lord Leong - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Employment Rights Bill Impact Assessments were published in October 2024 and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/employment-rights-bill-impact-assessments. This analysis includes an assessment of the potential impact of the day-one right to not be unfairly dismissed on employment tribunal caseloads.
Asked by: Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect to publish their funding plan to ensure that employment tribunals are adequately resources to manage the impact of the Employment Rights Bill.
Answered by Lord Leong - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
We recognise the Employment Tribunal system needs appropriate resourcing. The Lord Chancellor has a statutory duty to ensure sufficient funding for an efficient and effective Employment Tribunal. This is done via negotiation with the senior judiciary via the Concordat process.
For the financial year 2025/26, the Government has committed funding to support 33,900 sitting days for Employment Tribunals, which is at maximum judicial capacity. Funding for future years will be subject to future Concordat processes.
We are working to ensure that existing spend on Acas, tribunals, and state enforcement is used in an efficient way.
Asked by: Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many policy reviews and consultations the Department for Business and Trade has launched since the General Election on 4 July 2024; what the subject of each review is; and what the anticipated timescales are for their completion.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
Following the election, this Government has outlined its ambitions through the Plan for Change, which sets out an ambitious set of milestones - across the missions - for this Parliament.
As the House would expect, Government continually reviews its work to ensure that it is delivering the best outcomes for the people of the United Kingdom, and that its policies continue to represent the best value for the taxpayer.
Public reviews will be available on gov.uk as they are published.
Asked by: Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many asylum seekers have arrived illegally in the UK by small boats since 5 July; and what is the breakdown of those arrivals by (1) nationality, (2) gender, and (3) age.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes daily small boat arrival figures in the ‘Small boat activity in the English Channel’ transparency release on gov.uk; however, this includes all small boat arrivals, not just those who have claimed asylum.
The Home Office also publishes statistics on small boat arrivals to the UK in the ‘Irregular migration to the UK statistics’ release on gov.uk. Data on asylum applications from small boat arrivals, by nationality, sex, and age, is published in table Irr_D02 of the ‘Irregular migration to the UK detailed datasets’, with the latest data up to the end of June 2024. Data on asylum applications from small boat arrivals for July to September 2024 will be published in November 2024.