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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will take steps to strengthen protections for workers on zero-hour contracts to ensure that they have the ability to decline offered shifts without incurring a risk that they will not be offered suitable shifts in future.

Zero hours contracts are an important part of the UK’s flexible labour market, for both employers to manage changing demand and for individuals who may need to balance work around other commitments such as childcare and study.

The Government has made good progress in bringing forward measures that add flexibility for workers while ensuring the protection of employment rights including banning exclusivity clauses in Zero Hours Contracts in 2015. In 2020, the Government introduced the right for all workers to receive a day one written statement of rights, setting out leave entitlements and pay. This ensures all workers have transparent information about their employment relationship.