Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of whether the definition of redundancy in section 139 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 remains adequate where the work continues but is relocated to an overseas jurisdiction.

Offshoring of roles are commercial matters for individual businesses, but when employees are made redundant because their jobs are moved overseas, they must be collectively consulted if the redundancies meet collective redundancy obligations in UK law.

The government is introducing an organisation wide threshold alongside the single establishment test, so employees will benefit from stronger collective redundancy protections.

We have also doubled the protective award from 90 to 180 day’s pay when employers ignore their obligations.

However, the department does not currently plan to carry out a specific assessment of the definition of redundancy in section 139 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.