Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the individual opt-out agreement under the Working Time Regulations 1998 on levels of exploitation in low-paid employment.

A review of the impact of the Working Time Regulations on the UK labour market was undertaken by the Coalition Government in 2014. It found a decline since 1998 in the incidence of long-hours working despite the existence of the opt-out, and a general trend towards shorter working hours.

It also found that the vast majority of long-hours workers would not have wanted to work fewer than 48 hours per week if it meant less pay, and that long-hours working was generally more prevalent in high income and highly skilled occupations compared to lower income and medium and low-skilled occupations.