On Friday, Downing Street made it clear that Sir Keir Starmer was intent on delivering the plan, but suggested it would take some time to develop.
Asked whether it was still going ahead, a Number 10 spokesman said: “As we said more broadly on the King’s Speech, it’s not the limits of our ambitions or all of the Government’s work. These are the first legislative steps.
“But more broadly, the Government is committed to making work pay and ensuring that working people are protected from exploitative practices and also are supported to ensure that employees are assisting them to be as productive as possible.”
The spokesman said “good employers” understand that workers “need to be able to switch off” because that was “good for productivity”, but added that “of course situations may vary” and there would be some circumstances where staff need to be reached out of hours.
He said the Government was looking at “different models of measures that have been put in place in different countries that support productivity and work flexibility” and would “update in due course”.
There have been warnings that the ban on out-of-emails could risk pushing down wages, with the extra cost burden on businesses passed on to workers.