Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will adopt the definition of full employment used in the Europe 2020 strategy to define full employment in the UK.

The full employment clause in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill places a duty on the Secretary of State to lay a report before Parliament detailing progress towards full employment. The first annual report will set out the interpretation of full employment.

It would not be appropriate to use the Europe 2020 strategy as the basis for defining full employment, as the UK employment rate for those aged 20-64, which currently stands at 76.5%, has already exceeded the target recommended in that report.