John Hayes has
today launched a consultation on the future of the right to
request time to train.
The legal right for workers in businesses with more than 250
employees to request time to take up relevant training came into
effect from April 6 this year.
The Government has announced a review of all regulations in a bid
to reduce burdens on business. This consultation aims to gather
opinions on the right to request time to train and will feed in to
the review.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is interested
in hearing views on the regulation from employees, businesses and
other interested parties.
Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning Minister, John
Hayes, said:
“Before we make any decisions about the future of the right to
request time to train, it is important that we gauge views of the
regulation and whether it is improving training opportunities for
employees.
“We believe it is important that all regulations are properly
scrutinised and we are therefore interested in hearing views on
the future of this right and its role in promoting training in the
workplace, which I see as vital to our economic success.
“I have asked my officials to ensure that this consultation is
actively promoted to ensure that we get a broad range of views.”
This consultation will be shorter than the normal 12 weeks and
will close on September 15. The shorter consultation period will
allow all representations to be made before the September 17
deadline for submissions to the next meeting of the Reducing
Regulation Committee.
Notes to Editors
The Consultation is available here:
www.bis.gov.uk/time-to-trainThe right to request time to train is
currently available for large businesses only. A phased approach
has been adopted to allow small and medium businesses prepare for
the regulation which will come into effect for them from April
2011. In view of the short consultation period, the consultation
on the right to request time to train will be actively promoted to
interested organisations to ensure that a good response is
obtained. BIS' online newsroom contains the latest press
notices, speeches, as well as video and images for download. It
also features an up to date list of BIS press office contacts. See
http://www.bis.gov.uk/newsroom for more information.
Contacts:
BIS Press Office
NDS.BIS@coi.gsi.gov.uk
Joanna Fletcher
Phone: 020 7215 5951
Joanna.Fletcher@bis.gsi.gov.uk