Question

To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of Commons Commission, how many (a) direct, (b) outsourced and (c) agency employees on the Parliamentary estate are (i) paid less than the London living wage and (ii) employed on a zero-hours contract.

The House of Commons is an accredited London Living Wage Employer. In order to obtain our licence the House had to satisfy the Living Wage Foundation that no directly employed or contracted workers engaged to work on the Parliamentary estate are paid less than the London Living Wage (LLW). The House of Commons has gone further than its obligations under this licence by adopting a policy of assuring that all contractors supplying a service to the House, regardless of whether they work on the Estate, are paid at least a living wage.

The House is committed to offering guaranteed minimum hours contracts to all directly-employed staff on call-off (zero hours) contracts and has recently completed a process of offering guaranteed minimum hours contracts to all affected staff. The only call-off contracts that remain relate to two employees who have yet to accept or who preferred not to accept our offer.

We do not have information on whether or how many contracted workers are employed on zero hours contracts.