Member

Currently, there are eight broad business reasons why an employer can reject a flexible working request. These were originally set out in 2003 and were restated as part of the renewed ACAS guidance in April 2024. Indeed, they are basically what is set out in the section that the noble Lord, Lord Murray of Blidworth, was talking about. These are not new or cooked up. They cover a wide range of examples and give businesses a huge amount of scope, in the Government’s opinion, to make a reasonable refusal of flexible working. They include extra costs; where work cannot be reorganised among other staff; where performance or, indeed, quality would be affected; where you simply cannot recruit people to do the work in those conditions; when you cannot meet customer demand; when there is a lack of work during the requested proposed working times; or, indeed, when the business is already planning changes to the workforce.