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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Good Work Plan published in December 2018, whether it remains his policy to ban the use of pay-between-assignment contracts to avoid agency workers’ equal pay rights.

Under regulations 10 and 11 of the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, agency workers were able to waive their right to the same pay as a directly recruited member of staff if they signed a “pay between assignments” contract, also known as a “Swedish Derogation” contract. After a public consultation, the Government decided to revoke regulations 10 and 11 to ban the use of “Swedish Derogation” contracts. The ban came into force on 6 April 2020 and applies to England, Scotland and Wales. The legislation is available online here:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2019/724/contents/made.