§ Mr. BentonTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many residents of Bootle have been affected by a reduction of the working week to 48 hours. [176997]
§ Mr. SutcliffeThe Working Time Regulations provide workers with the right to refuse to work more than 48 hours on average, if they do not want to. Numbers for Bootle are not available. However, it has been estimated that around 300,000 workers resident in the north-west stood to benefit from the introduction of the weekly working time limits in 1998.