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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the political implications for its policies of the findings of the Learning Disability Voices report on the effect of the application of the National Living Wage on sleep-in shifts.

The Government believes that workers should be paid NMW if what they are doing amounts to work under the contract. In cases where the workers must be present at their place of work, and are in effect working even if their boss allows them to sleep rather than carry out other activities, the workers should get paid the NMW.

The Government has published guidance to help employers meet national minimum wage legislation. The calculating the minimum wage document sets out on page 29 the guidance relating to National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW) and sleeping time.