Author Archives: wonkypolicywonk

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About wonkypolicywonk

Wonkypolicywonk is a recovering policy minion, assigned wonky at birth.

Maternity leave: Lies, damn lies and statements by BEIS minister Paul Scully

Posted on June 1, 2022 by wonkypolicywonk

In recent years, BEIS minister Paul Scully – a strong contender for the hotly-contested title of Most Idiotic Minister in the Johnson Government – has repeatedly and brazenly claimed that “the UK’s maternity leave system is one of the most … Continue reading →

Posted in Parental rights, Workers' rights | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Taylor Review is dead, long live the Warman Review!

Posted on May 16, 2022 by wonkypolicywonk

So, just two days after shelving a repeatedly promised Employment Bill intended to deliver a raft of policy pledges made as long ago as February 2018, Boris Johnson has launched a new review into the future of work. Because the … Continue reading →

Posted in Workers' rights | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Workers’ rights: delivery delays

Posted on May 3, 2022 by wonkypolicywonk

Now that Boris Johnson has put his lockdown-busting partying behind him and just wants to “get on with delivering”, perhaps he and his Government will use next week’s Queen’s Speech to finally start delivering on some of their many outstanding … Continue reading →

Posted in Workers' rights | Tagged | 4 Comments

Employment Bill: other legislative vehicles are available

Posted on April 4, 2022 by wonkypolicywonk

Three weeks ago on this blog, I suggested – with a little help from the great Tracey Thorn and Ben Watts – that ministers have shelved their long-promised Employment Bill (again). And on Friday a (rather thinly evidenced) story in … Continue reading →

Posted in Workers' rights | Tagged | 1 Comment

Missing: the Employment Bill

Posted on March 17, 2022 by wonkypolicywonk

[With apologies to Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt] I step into HansardI’m wonking down your street againAnd past your door, but you don’t live there anymoreIt’s two years since you were in the manifestoAnd now you’ve disappeared somewhere, like outer … Continue reading →

Posted in Workers' rights | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Four-day week: sagas of Icelanders

Posted on February 15, 2022 by wonkypolicywonk

There being an R in the month, there is a new report making the case for a four-day week. This month, the focus is on Wales, with a report by think tank Autonomy, commissioned by the Future Generations for Wales … Continue reading →

Posted in Workers' rights | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Overdue: a Labour Party policy on equal parenting

Posted on January 20, 2022 by wonkypolicywonk

Recently on this blog, I noted that pretty much all that Labour’s otherwise impressively ambitious September 2021 ‘green paper’ on employment rights had to say about securing a much-needed societal shift towards more equal parenting – a shift essential to ending the … Continue reading →

Posted in Parental rights, Workers' rights | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Shared Parental Leave: Someday will surely come

Posted on January 13, 2022 by wonkypolicywonk

A few weeks ago, yet another year came to an end without the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) having concluded its marathon evaluation of the chronically failing Shared Parental Leave scheme. Originally due to start in March … Continue reading →

Posted in Parental rights, Workers' rights | Tagged | 4 Comments

The mother of all statistics

Posted on January 9, 2022 by wonkypolicywonk

Four months ago on this blog, I posed the question: How many women start on statutory paid maternity leave in the UK each year? You’d think this would be a well-known and widely used official statistic, freely available on some … Continue reading →

Posted in Parental rights, Workers' rights | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Single Enforcement Body: Are we nearly there yet?

Posted on December 22, 2021 by wonkypolicywonk

Just over two years ago, in October 2019, I wrote on this blog about the long and difficult gestation of the Government’s proposed Single Enforcement Body for employment rights, to “tackle the deeply fragmented enforcement landscape”. And it is now … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments