Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make a comparative assessment of the impact of legislation on the right to strike in (a) the UK and (b) the EU on the prevalence of industrial action.

While the Government will always respect the freedom of individuals to strike, it is important this is balanced with the right of everyone else to go about their lives safely – and that is exactly what these new laws seek to do.

The new laws we are introducing are reasonable and will bring us in line with countries in the EU like France, Italy and Spain who have had arrangements guaranteeing minimum service levels during strike action in place for many years.