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 make an estimate of the number of people who have had requests for flexible working refused in the last 12 months.

In September 2021, the Government published a Post Implementation Review of the 2014 Flexible Working Regulations. This considered evidence from a range of different sources, including the Management and Wellbeing Practices Survey.

The survey found that in 83% of workplaces, where a request had been made, the request was granted, with 9% of employers reporting turning down a flexible working request in 2018-19 (the remaining proportion had an unknown outcome). These numbers remain broadly unchanged since the right to request flexible working legislation was extended in 2014.