It is a legal requirement for all tips, gratuities and service charges to be passed on to the workers who have earned them. They must be distributed in a fair and transparent manner between workers, including part time and full time workers.

The new requirements on tipping will mean that employers must consult with workers at their place of business when developing or revising their written tipping policies.

The purpose of this change is to increase the influence of workers, particularly those who have traditionally had less of a voice in the workplace. This will include both full-time and part-time workers.

The government has published a comprehensive assessment of the potential impacts from the zero hours contract measures in the Employment Rights Act 2025. This includes consideration of the potential impact of the right to guaranteed hours on employment for different types of roles or groups in the labour market.

For most teachers, resignation arrangements, including dates, are set out in the Burgundy Book. This is a national agreement negotiated with employers by the six teachers’ unions. The department has no authority or responsibility for the Burgundy Book. Resignation details are therefore currently the responsibility of employers, which, in a school setting, is normally the local authority or Academy Trust.

We are encouraging schools and multi-academy trusts to adopt a strategic approach to flexible working, including having open conversations with staff, designing clear processes for managing requests that reflect the needs of staff, leaders and pupils, and ensuring these processes are aligned with workforce planning and timetabling to support clarity around working arrangements.

For most teachers, resignation arrangements, including dates, are set out in the Burgundy Book. This is a national agreement negotiated with employers by the six teachers’ unions. The department has no authority or responsibility for the Burgundy Book. Resignation details are therefore currently the responsibility of employers, which, in a school setting, is normally the local authority or Academy Trust.

We are encouraging schools and multi-academy trusts to adopt a strategic approach to flexible working, including having open conversations with staff, designing clear processes for managing requests that reflect the needs of staff, leaders and pupils, and ensuring these processes are aligned with workforce planning and timetabling to support clarity around working arrangements.

As per the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers, where a special adviser wishes to undertake work for a political party which does not arise out of government business they may do this either in their own time, outside office hours, or under a separate contract with the Party, working part-time for the Government. They may not use annual or unpaid leave for this purpose.

It was a pleasure to meet the hon. Member and the hospitality sector in her constituency recently. There are a wide range of factors when introducing new tax reliefs, and they need to happen in the usual way. The alleviation that we have already introduced on NIC is making a real difference to young people getting into employment. We will review it in the usual way in due course.

Hospitality businesses in North East Fife support the Lib Dem call for a VAT cut for hospitality, but the Government do not seem to be moving on it. Will the Minister consult with businesses on a lower national insurance contribution band for part-time workers? Part-time opportunities are so important to hospitality and for getting younger people into work.

As set out in our Child Poverty Strategy, this Government is committed to boosting family incomes, supporting single parents and reducing the earnings gap within couple households by transforming employment support and removing barriers to work. The Government recognises that high childcare costs can affect parents’ decisions to take up paid work or increase their working hours, which is why we offer financial assistance and 30 hours of free childcare a week through the Free Childcare for Working Parents scheme. Following the publication of the Child Poverty Strategy, we are continuing to engage across the voluntary and community sector to understand and address issues facing parents and carers, including single parents.

In Universal Credit, working families can claim up to 85% of eligible childcare costs each month, up to a maximum of £1071.09 a month for a single child and £1836.16 a month for families with two or more children at the 2026/2027 rates. At the Budget, we announced that in 2026-27 we will help parents in work who have larger families by providing UC childcare support for each additional child beyond the first. Lead carers within Universal Credit also have different conditionality requirements that reflect their childcare responsibilities.

We are also supporting parents to balance work and childcare through the Make Work Pay legislation, which strengthens rights to request flexible working arrangements. We are rolling out free breakfast clubs in schools across the country, helping parents manage work schedules whilst ensuring children have a positive start to the day. Parents and carers can also benefit from our wider employment support initiatives including Inactivity Trailblazers in England and Wales, Skills Bootcamps, the Sector-based Work Academy Programme, the Adult Skills Fund, and personalised help for sick and disabled people through Pathways to Work. Further to this, DWP currently deploys around 300 Family Community Work Coaches in England to support the most vulnerable families in society with multiple, complex needs to make significant, positive changes in their lives that move them towards employment.

As we design and develop the new Jobs and Careers Service, we will ensure support is more personalised to meet individuals’ needs and help them overcome their specific barriers to work. We are also testing bringing services and support into the heart of communities, for example through partnership delivery in Family Hubs, Jobcentre vans and community pop-ups.

We are committed to providing disabled people who want to work with the right support to find employment, including part-time work and self-employment, that meets their specific circumstances and ambitions.

In addition to Work Coach support, our Pathways to Work Advisers provide one-to-one personalised support to disabled customers to help them move towards, and into, work. More than 65,000 people have already chosen to receive support from these advisers over the last year.

Outside of Jobcentre Plus-based support, our voluntary and locally-commissioned, £1bn Connect to Work Supported Employment programme offers specialised employment support to disabled people, those with health conditions and people with complex barriers to employment. The programme provides participants with tailored support, including vocational profiling, finding good job matches and on the job coaching. It will support around 300,000 people across England and Wales by March 2030. We are also expanding the WorkWell programme to cover all of England by autumn 2026, to provide integrated, holistic early help to up to 250,000 people with health-related barriers to work.

The Department for Work and Pensions also works with employers to encourage them to adopt flexible recruitment practices, including reduced-hours roles, alternative shift patterns and other adjustments that make jobs more accessible, including through the use of assistive technology.

I refer the hon. Member for North East Hampshire to the answer of 21 January 2026 to Question 103065.

Interest accrues on loan balances until the loan has been repaid in full or cancelled, but interest rates do not impact monthly repayments made by borrowers.

Borrowers on Plan 5 student loans only accrue interest at Retail Price Index (RPI), currently 3.2%, meaning graduates will not repay more than they borrow in real terms. Borrowers on Plan 2 terms have interest applied at RPI only if earnings fall below the repayment threshold, such as while on statutory maternity leave, ensuring that the loan’s debt value will not grow in real terms. Additionally, borrowers, regardless of their plan, earning under the repayment threshold are not required to make repayments.

Graduates only begin repaying once their earnings exceed the earnings threshold, paying 9% of income above that level. If a graduate becomes disabled and permanently unfit for work, loan balances, including interest may be written off.

For all borrowers, any outstanding loan, including interest accrued, will be cancelled after the loan term ends, and debt is never passed on to family members or descendants.

The government is making fair choices on tax so it can deliver on the public’s priorities, including maintaining the Secondary Threshold until April 2031. In April 2025, the government more than doubled the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500.

The OBR expect that employment levels will rise in every year of the forecast, and that they will be higher in every year compared to March, reaching 35.5m in 2030-31.

Businesses are able to claim employer NICs reliefs including those for under-21s and under-25 apprentices. This means employers pay no employer NICs for apprentices under 25 or employees under 21 on earnings up to £50,270.

The OBR expect that employment levels will rise in every year of the forecast, and that they will be higher in every year compared to March, reaching 35.5m in 2030-31.

Businesses are able to claim employer NICs reliefs including those for under-21s and under-25 apprentices. This means employers pay no employer NICs for apprentices under 25 or employees under 21 on earnings up to £50,270.

The OBR expect that employment levels will rise in every year of the forecast, and that they will be higher in every year compared to March, reaching 35.5m in 2030-31.

The government is making fair choices on tax so it can deliver on the public’s priorities, including maintaining the Secondary Threshold until April 2031. In April 2025, the government more than doubled the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500.

The OBR expect that employment levels will rise in every year of the forecast, and that they will be higher in every year compared to March, reaching 35.5m in 2030-31.

The government has published a Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) setting out the impact of maintaining income Tax and equivalent National Insurance contributions thresholds.

The government has published a Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) setting out the impact of maintaining income Tax and equivalent National Insurance contributions thresholds.