Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the latest data release entitled EMP17: People in employment on zero hours contracts, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of trends in the proportion of university students who are working in jobs with zero hours contracts.

Zero-hours contracts remain an important part of the UK’s flexible labour market, for both employers where there is not a constant demand for staff and for individuals who may need to balance work around other commitments such as childcare and study.

Individuals on zero hours contracts represent a very small proportion of the workforce – just over 3%. For this small group, a zero-hour contract may be the type of contract which works best for them, providing flexibility to balance work and study with 22% of people on zero-hour contracts are in full-time education compared with 3% of other people in employment.

The Government is supporting a Private Member’s Bill which will introduce a new right for workers – especially those on zero hours contracts - to request a more predictable working pattern. The new right will allow a qualifying worker to make an application to change their existing working pattern if it lacks predictability in terms of the hours they are required to work, or if it is a fixed term contract of less than 12 months.