To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what his latest estimate is of the number of people who have a statutory right to request flexible working as a result of having been employed continuously for 26 weeks or more. (270809)

The impact assessment produced in 2007 when the right to request flexible working was extended to carers of adults estimated that 2.65 million carers would be eligible.

The impact assessment published in March 2009 to accompany the Government response to the recent consultation on implementing the recommendations of the Walsh Review estimated that an additional 4.5 million parents would be eligible to request flexible working under the extended legislation. The impact assessment also estimated that 3.5 million parents were already eligible under the existing legislation. The total number of parents who have the statutory right to request flexible working is around 8 million.

Overall more than 10 million employees have the statutory right to request flexible working.