Employment Rights Bill (First sitting)

Peter Bedford Excerpts

Committee stage
Tuesday 26th November 2024 Public Bill Committees

[The Chair]

Thank you. Very briefly—question and answers—Peter Bedford.

[Mr Peter Bedford (Mid Leicestershire) (Con)]

Q You mentioned the risks to recruitment and retention of staff. Specifically on youth unemployment and recruiting younger people, what impacts will this Bill have for your affected members?

Matthew Percival: This is a question of broader context as well. We have already mentioned the changes at the Budget and how the impact of the threshold element of the national insurance changes in particular is concentrated in sectors that currently employ a large number of young people. The Bill also ends up focusing on the same area, and those businesses often speak about a triple whammy, because they are the same businesses that are affected by national living wage increases. In all three aspects, you end up with a similar group of businesses that face particular costs, and therefore, where there are unintended consequences, they are disproportionately likely to be faced by young people.

Jane Gratton: I think it might just influence an employer’s choice at the recruitment stage. If they have someone who comes along who has no experience but who they could take a chance on, or someone who is more experienced, and then there is the cost and the risk through the day one rights, it might just influence that decision. That is a worry, because that is not going to help us to tackle NEETs—people not in employment, education or training.

Alex Hall-Chen: I agree with that. I spoke to an SME just yesterday who said, essentially, that they will have to change their current recruitment process of taking on younger people and training them up, because it is too risky, given the reforms happening in the space, so they will focus on more experienced employees who can demonstrate previous competence.

[The Chair]

That brings us to the end of the time allotted for the Committee to ask these witnesses questions. On behalf of the Committee, may I thank the three witnesses for giving us full and very clear answers? Thank you very much.

Examination of Witnesses

David Hale and Dom Hallas gave evidence.