§ Mr. BorrowTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the benefits to the residents of South Ribble of new rights for night workers. [172138]
§ Nigel GriffithsThe Working Time Regulations came into force on 1 October 1998. The regulations limit working time to 48 hours per week averaged over a 17-week reference period. For night workers the limit is eight hours per day on average, including overtime where it is part of a night worker's normal hours of work. There is no opt-out from the night working time limit.
Night workers are entitled to 11 hours rest between working days, one day's rest per week, and a 20-minute in work rest break if the working period is longer than six hours.
All night workers should be offered a free health assessment before they start working night and thereafter at regular intervals for as long as they are working nights. The health assessments should take account of the nature of the work and the restrictions on a worker's working time under the regulations. Workers who suffer from problems as a result of working at night, should as far as practicable be offered alternative day work.
All workers are entitled to four weeks paid annual leave. There is no specific data available for night shift workers in South Ribble.
§ Mr. BorrowTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many residents in South Ribble have benefited from a reduction of the working week to 48 hours. [172139]
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§ 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 South Ribble are not available, however it has been estimated that around 300,000 workers resident in the North West region stood to benefit from the introduction of the weekly working time limits in 1998.
§ Mr. BorrowTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many and what percentage of women in South Ribble have taken 26 weeks maternity leave since 1997. [172148]
§ Mr. SutcliffeTake-up of maternity leave is not recorded centrally. It is possible to make an estimate of the numbers of women taking maternity leave based on employer returns to Inland Revenue of the Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) they recover (since 2003 this has covered the first 26 weeks of leave). Figures for the take-up of SMP are not available on a regional basis, but nationally around 300,000 women receive SMP each year.
In addition, there will be some women who will qualify for maternity leave but not SMP (because they do not meet the earnings or length of employment criteria for SMP) and similarly some who qualify for SMP but not leave (because they are employed earners for the purposes of SMP but not employees in order to qualify for leave).