To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what steps she will take to ensure that employees receive a written statement of terms and conditions of employment.

The Trade Union Reform and Employment Rights Bill, currently before Parliament, significantly enhances the statutory right to a written statement of main terms and conditions of employment, reducing from 13 weeks to two months the period within which it must be provided and extending entitlement to employees working between eight and 16 hours a week, who have hitherto had to complete five years continuous service in order to qualify.

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what proposals she will bring forward to protect employees of under two years standing whose employers have not issued a written statement of terms and conditions of employment and persistently fail to provide one.

Employees who have not received a written statement to which they are entitled under the provisions of the Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978 may refer the matter to an industrial tribunal.Clause 28 of the Trade Union Reform and Employment Rights Bill, currently before Parliament, introduces a new provision making it automatically unfair for an employer to dismiss an employee, regardless of length of service or hours of work, for having sought in good faith to exercise a statutory employment protection right, including the right to a written statement.