Business Hiring

Lord Sharpe of Epsom Excerpts

Monday 1st June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

That is a question that I personally have not put my mind to. I am happy to discuss it with my colleagues.

[Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)]

My Lords, 42 years on, I remind the House of my noble friend’s statistic that there are over 1 million NEETs at the moment. How depressing is that?

To follow on from my noble friend’s question, retail and hospitality are often young people’s first chance to enter the labour market, yet these are the sectors being hit hardest by the Government’s own policies. In April this year, the BRC, UKHospitality and the Food and Drink Federation, among others, sent a joint letter to Peter Kyle warning him that an inflexible guaranteed hours regime could mean an end to flexible roles altogether. They urged the Government to raise the reference period from 12 weeks to at least six months and to set the low-hours contract to eight hours. Will the Minister commit to listening to business and making these changes?

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

We committed during the passage of the Employment Rights Act to consult trade unions, businesses and all those affected as we take forward the other measures there, including the measures to which the noble Lord refers. At the appropriate time, we will put that out to consultation, which will be open to everyone to respond to.

On hospitality and retail, it is recognised that this is a very important first step, and that is one reason why we are expanding opportunities through the new foundation apprenticeships in hospitality and retail, launching a level 2 administrative assistance apprenticeship from August and introducing the £2,000 hiring payment for employers that recruit young apprentices.