Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the number of people in the West Midlands on zero-hour contracts.

Data from the independent Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that in 2018 75,000 people in the West Midlands are employed on zero hours’ contracts – representing just 2.7% of people employed in the West Midlands.

In the UK in 2018 the ONS estimate that 844,000 people were employed on zero hours’ contracts – 2.6% of all people employed.

A record number of people (32.7 million) in the UK are employed. Since 2010 nearly 80% of the growth in employment has been in full-time work and over 75% has come from permanent employment’. Average wages have grown faster than inflation for 15 consecutive months.