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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many and what proportion of the full-time workforce choose to opt out of the Working Time Directive.

The Department does not routinely collect comprehensive information about how many workers opt-out of the 48 hour maximum working week.

However, the Department conducted a review of the impact of the Working Time Regulations in 2014. The review reports roughly one third (32 per cent) of British workplaces had at least one employee who had signed an opt-out agreement in 2011.

Labour Force Survey analysis shows that the proportion of employees usually working over 48 hours a week has also declined over time. 13 per cent of all employees worked over 48 hours a week in 2013, compared to 18 per cent in 1997.

More information can be found in the Department’s review of the impact of the Working Time Regulations:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/389676/bis-14-1287-the-impact-of-the-working-time-regulations-on-the-uk-labour-market-a-review-of-evidence.pdf