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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of making (a) Diwali and (b) Eid national public holidays; and if she will make a statement.

We welcome the celebration of Diwali, Eid, Vaisakhi and other religious festivals. All faiths have a home in this country.

The Government regularly receives requests for additional bank and public holidays to commemorate a variety of occasions – such as cultural, history, military and religious events. The current pattern of bank holidays is well established and accepted.

There is a significant cost to business of creating additional public holidays. The estimated cost to the economy of the one-off bank holiday for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee was £1.2 billion.

The Equality Act 2010 makes it unlawful for employers to treat staff from a particular religious group less favourably than those from other religions when considering requests for leave, or requests to refrain from work on particular days.