Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to his Department's publication entitled Factsheet: The Fair Work Agency, whether the agency will be specifically mandated to uphold the rights of young women in the workplace.

Women and young people are less likely to get the employment rights they are entitled to than the general population. The creation of the Fair Work Agency will deliver a generational upgrade to enforcement of workers’ rights, and young women particularly stand to benefit.

Its core function will be to enforce specific employment legislation set out in Part 1 of Schedule 7 of the Employment Rights Bill. The Government has worked closely with a variety of stakeholders as it has developed the Bill, and we are committed to continuing this.

The Secretary of State has discretion to appoint individuals as independent experts to the Fair Work Agency’s Advisory Board, if the Secretary of State considers them to have relevant expertise. This could include appointing individuals with expertise in relation to young women’s experience of the labour market.