Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the prevalence of the use of fire and rehire practices in higher education in England; and what steps he plans to take to address it.

The Government has published a comprehensive package of analysis on the impact of the Employment Rights Bill including an impact assessment of the Bill’s measure to end the unscrupulous use of fire and rehire. The evidence on the prevalence of the practice of fire and rehire is limited, however. Department for Business and Trade analysis suggests that <1% of employers might engage in the practice each year.

We are strengthening the law in this area to make it clear that the unscrupulous use of fire and rehire and fire and replace are not acceptable and will be an automatically unfair dismissal.