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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to help support working parents with flexible working options that can help increase their workplace participation.

All employees with 26 weeks’ continuous service with their employer already have the right to request flexible working.

In 2021, the government consulted on measures that would further support the uptake of flexible working arrangements, including whether to extend the right to request flexible working to employees from their first day of employment. The consultation is now closed, having received over 1,600 responses. We will respond in due course.

The Government is also pleased to be supporting the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Bill introduced by the Hon. Member for Bolton South East, which passed Second Reading on 28 October.