Working From Home (Home-based Working Committee Report)

Baroness Lloyd of Effra Excerpts

Wednesday 10th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business and Trade and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (Baroness Lloyd of Effra) (Lab)]

My Lords, I am pleased to respond for the Government, and I will address the key themes that have emerged through this thoughtful debate. I, too, start by thanking the noble Baroness, Lady Scott of Needham Market, not only for securing the debate but for her skilful chairing of the Home-based Working Select Committee and for its report. I am also very grateful to the noble Lords on the committee who led the inquiry, many of whom are here today. It has made a valuable and timely intervention. It has improved our evidence base on this emerging area. I agree with every previous speaker that the richness of the debate today has been exemplary.

We heard compelling arguments that flexibility around when or where someone works can open up opportunities for people who may otherwise face difficulty securing a job, staying in work or progressing through their career. It can be particularly helpful for people navigating responsibilities in their home lives, whether that is caring for others or managing health conditions.

The Government recognise that the benefits of flexibility extend beyond surmounting those particular barriers at work. When implemented well, flexible working can support improved well-being, strengthen the work/life balance and enable people across the labour market to remain productive and engaged in their roles. It is also associated with tangible benefits for employers, including higher levels of staff motivation, stronger loyalty and improved retention.

That is why the Government are changing legislation to improve access to flexibility. The reforms we have introduced through the Employment Rights Act will make it more likely that flexible working requests are considered and are accepted where they are reasonable. As the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, mentioned, the reasonable tests have been in place for over 20 years. We will ensure that when the flexible working reforms are finalised, there will be guidance specifically for employers on the reasonable test, and that will be subject to a further public consultation before the reforms take effect.

However, it is important to distinguish between flexibility as a broader concept and the specific question of home working, where the evidence landscape is more nuanced, as many noble Lords have mentioned today. For many, the pandemic necessitated a rapid shift to remote working, and we heard the various perspectives from the noble Lord, Lord Sharma, and my noble friend Lord Monks. Indeed, the noble Baroness, Lady Lane-Fox, put the consequences of the changes that it has made so poetically. Pre pandemic, around 12% of workers reported working from home some or all of the time, compared with around 39% today. The scale and pace of change have inevitably constrained the depth and consistency of the evidence base, and the longer-term impacts are still being understood.

The committee’s report, and many noble Lords today, underlined the gaps in evidence on home-based working. We are committed to improving the UK’s evidence base, in partnership with other government departments and business. We agree that it is important to monitor the effects of the changing ways of working over the years ahead, through both research and data collection.

The noble Lord, Lord Sharma, stressed the importance of working with business representative organisations and other economies. We already take it into account where it is comparable. As we discussed, there are already issues with data clarity, even within the UK. That is an important point and, where it is comparable, we will look to take that forward.

The noble Baronesses, Lady Scott and Lady Freeman, and the noble Lord, Lord Fink, highlighted the importance of closer collaboration with the Office for National Statistics. We are engaging with the ONS to strengthen the evidence base, including collaboration on future data collection and research. This includes working through a cross-governmental analytical network to identify evidence gaps and develop more robust and comprehensive data over time.

The department is engaged with academics at the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence who are looking at developing linked employer/employee data in the UK. We will continue to explore opportunities to feed into this and benefit from that work. Many noble Lords mentioned the importance of that link.

While the ONS is operationally independent of the Government, the work is progressing on the linked employee/employer dataset, which links workers to their employers using pay-as-you-earn real-time information to track employers and employees over time. The ONS anticipates that a technical note and a set of exploratory statistics will be published later this year.

Many noble Lords talked about the balance that needs to be struck in making sure there is increased flexibility, including home-working arrangements, and that it works for employers as well as employees. The noble Baronesses, Lady Fraser and Baroness Manzoor, and the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Wirral, set out why decisions about working arrangements should ultimately sit with employers and employees. I agree that a one-size-fits-all approach would not be appropriate. That is why the Government are focused on expanding access to flexibility where it is feasible, encouraging dialogue between employees and employers, while making sure that businesses do not have to accept requests that are not reasonable or will not work in practice.

I listened carefully to noble Lords who rightly drew attention to the potential risks of home working. Several noble Lords, including the noble Baronesses, Lady Manzoor, Lady Scott and Lady Watkins, highlighted the potential impacts of home and hybrid working on productivity, well-being and business performance. The evidence on these factors is complex and still evolving.

We recognise that the evidence on home working and productivity remains mixed and difficult to measure, with impacts varying by role and working arrangements. As many have underlined today, there is a very important nexus with good management, and it is important to support that. As the noble Lord, Lord Fink, and the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, rightly emphasised, the Government have a role. We already provide some support and training in this area, such as the Help to Grow management programme, and we will consider whether further support is needed as reforms take effect.

My noble friends Lady Nye and Lord Brooke also noted the importance of public sector practice. The line manager capability programme was developed to improve the quality of line management across the Civil Service, including managing dispersed teams. Some noble Lords highlighted the importance of health and safety. Noble Lords are aware that through the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, employers have the same health and safety responsibilities for people working at home as they do for other workplaces. To improve understanding, the HSE recently promoted its home worker guidance through a multichannel communications campaign, which ran for eight weeks, from February to April this year. These efforts saw a doubling in visits to the web pages based on the previous eight weeks.

The noble Baronesses, Lady Bottomley and Lady Lane-Fox, and the noble Lords, Lord Fink and Lord Hampton, highlighted the experience of young people. We know that face-to-face time can be vital for training and career progression. The changes we are making will not stop employers determining that some work needs to be done in person.

I also want to acknowledge the important contributions that highlight the distinct value, opportunities and challenges of home working for disabled people and those managing health conditions. The noble Baroness, Lady Scott, and others, drew attention to the Access to Work scheme. The Access to Work scheme can help disabled people and people with physical or mental health conditions start or stay in work. We have said that it requires some improvements to ensure that it can deliver a timely, efficient and value-for-money service. Reform in this area is complex. We are taking the time needed to consult widely, collaborate and gather evidence from disabled people, employers and representative organisations, and we are continuing to refine policy options. Ministers will announce next steps when they are fully developed in that area.

Many others have also highlighted the importance of the Keep Britain Working Vanguard phase. That is currently considering how employers and government can work together to reduce health-related economic inactivity and build healthier and more inclusive workplaces. That phase is well under way. We are working with 150 employers in 11 regions, and we have begun our work to get the Workplace Health Intelligence Unit up and running to support the outcomes of that Vanguard scheme.

Many noble Lords, including the noble Baronesses, Lady Manzoor and Lady Scott, highlighted the importance of digital connectivity and skills, and indeed skills in AI. The Government recognise the importance of access to a fast and reliable broadband connection and are committed to ensuring that 99% of premises receive gigabit coverage by 2032. At the end of 2025, over 1.3 million premises in rural and hard-to-reach communities had been upgraded to gigabit-capable broadband through government-funded programmes over years. The UK is now one of the fastest builders of gigabit-capable broadband networks in Europe.

Many noble Lords, including the noble Baronesses, Lady Scott and Lady Freeman, and my noble friends Lord Monks and Lord Brooke, highlighted the uncertain nexus with the development of AI and how the home-based and flexible working we have seen develop post Covid will interact with that. These are very important questions, and I will make sure that I raise the point about flexible working and home working with the AI and the Future of Work Unit, so that when it continues its research it can make sure that the committee’s report and the points made today are considered in future deliberations.

Noble Lords highlighted the importance of delivery of these reforms. We are continuing to work across government to make the dispute resolution system more resilient, ensuring that the measures in the Employment Rights Act can be effectively enforced. This includes a mix of measures and longer-term reform, so the system is fit for purpose for the current landscape of employment rights and equipped to respond to future changes.

A number of important questions have been raised on how the increase in home working is supported in practice, including through workplace support and guidance. In particular, the noble Baroness, Lady Bottomley, is right to underline the importance of chief people officers, other HR professionals, and the role of line managers in considering how there might be scope for flexible working, given the organisation’s way of working, and how that is communicated with employees. We have listened to calls to engage with external stakeholders as we develop and iterate new guidance about the upcoming flexible working reforms. We have already been working to deliver this with a series of questions in our recent flexible working consultation, looking at the types of guidance line managers, employees and employers will need as these changes take effect. In parallel, officials have held 10 round-table discussions during the consultation to learn more about the guidance and resources that could be most helpful.

We will continue to build on this work, and we will establish a more structured, official-led stakeholder group. This will bring together stakeholders and business leaders to advise and support implementation while helping the Government drive culture change and shift narratives around flexible working. Once again, I would like to thank the noble Baroness and her committee for their report, and I would like to thank noble Lords for all their contributions today.