Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that requirements on agencies to offer guaranteed hours contracts do not reduce flexibility; and if he will consider reforms to allow such contracts to be requested by workers on the basis of hours worked with their agency.

The Government believes agency workers should be able to access a contract which reflects the hours they regularly work. Agency workers who prefer a more flexible arrangement can reject any guaranteed hours offer.

It will generally be hirers’ responsibility to offer guaranteed hours to qualifying agency workers, but regulations will be able to transfer the obligation on agencies or other intermediaries in certain scenarios. We will consult to ensure the measures work for agencies, hirers and agency workers.

We believe it could create undesirable barriers for agency workers to access guaranteed hours if they had to request guaranteed hours offers.