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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the merits of working shorter hours to tackle climate change.

The UK is a world leader in cutting emissions while creating wealth. Between 1990 and 2017, the UK reduced its emissions by over 40 per cent while growing the economy by more than two thirds. The Clean Growth Strategy sets out our plans to build on our progress in decarbonising the power sector, while looking further across the whole of the economy and the country. It includes ambitious proposals on housing, business, transport, the natural environment and green finance. We have not made any assessment of the impact of working shorter hours on climate change.

The Government does, though, continue to support flexible working practices, as part of our commitment to ensuring that everyone can access fair and decent work as set out in the Good Work Plan. For example, all employees with 26 weeks’ continuous service with their employer have the right to request Flexible Working. We have also committed to consult on a new duty on employers to consider when a job can be done flexibly, and make that clear when advertising.