Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer on 27 March 2023 to Question 169324 on Health: Working Hours, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of night shift working on the health and well-being of health workers; and if she will make a statement.

The Working Time Regulations provide specific protections to night workers. Before someone starts working at night, they must be offered a free health assessment to see if they are fit to work nights before they become a night worker and on a regular basis after that. A record of this must be kept by the employer. Employers must also make sure that night-time workers do not work more than an average of 8 hours in a 24-hour period. Employers can make collective or workforce agreements to change or exclude this limit.