Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of (a) the average number of hours of unpaid labour carried out in the UK each year as part of trial shifts and (b) the potential benefits of introducing regulations on trial shifts to ensure that jobseekers are not exploited.

The Department does not hold the data requested.

Existing legislation already bans unpaid work trials that are not part of a legitimate recruitment process. They are not permitted if they are simply for the financial benefit of the employer or are excessive in length.

The DWP Work Trial scheme is a key enabler to help some of our most disadvantaged claimants try work in a risk-free environment. It provides them with a job guarantee providing both they and the employer are satisfied following the trial. It removes the requirement for them to compete with other candidates giving them an opportunity to demonstrate their suitability to the employer whilst having the knowledge that if it doesn’t work out for either party there will be no effect on their current benefit entitlement with no requirement to reclaim benefits.

The requirement for the employer to guarantee that the Work Trial is linked to a genuine vacancy provides an additional safeguard to claimants.