Employment Act Mr. Philip Hammond To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many requests for flexible working have been made in each region since the relevant provisions of the Employment Act 2002 came into force; and how many were granted. Jim Fitzpatrick The table shows the proportion of employees who have requested to work flexibly and the resulting acceptance rate, for each region/nation in Great Britain. These figures are from the second Flexible Working Survey (2005). The new employment rights introduced on 6 April 2003 gave parents of children under six and disabled children under 18 the right to request flexible working. It is not known how many employees have requested flexible working since the right was introduced. The second Flexible Working Survey was conducted in January 2005 and respondents were asked to consider their last two years of employment. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Nation and region |Employee requests for flexible working|Acceptance (fully and partially)| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Great Britain |14 |81 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |England |14 |80 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |North East |13 |1— | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |North West |13 |88 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Yorkshire and the Humber |12 |69 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |East Midlands |16 |82 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |West Midlands |10 |79 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |East of England |1— |1— | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |London |15 |81 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |South East |14 |82 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |South West |17 |79 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Wales |14 |1— | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Scotland |12 |87 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |1 Reliable figures are not available due to small sample sizes. Source: Second Flexible Working Employee Survey 2005| | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------