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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps he has taken to introduce rights for flexible working.

Employees with 26 weeks continuous service already have a right to request a flexible working arrangement under current flexible working legislation. An employer can only reject a request for business reasons, such as the detrimental impact on ability to meet customer demand or an inability to re-organise work among existing staff.

The Government’s manifesto included a commitment to encourage flexible working and to consult on whether flexible working can be made the default unless employers have good reasons not to. We will issue this consultation in due course.