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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent discussions his Department has had with the Low Pay Commission on introducing a higher rate of minimum wage for hours not guaranteed as part of a contract.

Earlier this year, in the Government’s response to the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices, we accepted the review’s recommendation to ask the Low Pay Commission (LPC) to explore the impacts of introducing a higher National Minimum Wage rate for hours that are not guaranteed as part of a contract. Furthermore, we asked the LPC to provide advice on the impacts of alternative options for tackling the issue of one-sided flexibility.

We await the LPC’s assessment of these options.