Grant Shapps rejects government’s own assessment that anti-strike bill could lead to more strikes – live

Good morning. Last week the government published details of its planned anti-strike bill, which will require unions to maintain minimum services levels in transport, health, education, fire and rescue, nuclear decommissioning and border security when strikes are taking place. It is highly controversial and today Grant Shapps, the business secretary, is publishing the actual bill.

It is called the strikes (minimum service levels) bill. Ministers have been arguing that it is all about minimum safety levels, but as the title of the bill shows, it is all about minimum service levels – which means it has wider application.

The legislation builds on measures set out in the transport strikes (minimum service levels) bill, which was published during Liz Truss’s short-lived premiership but which never got debated by MPs. (It has been superseded by the new bill.) In an official impact assessment of the Truss bill, the government warned that this measure could lead to “an increased frequency of strikes”. Another risk was unions staging more industrial action just short of a strike, the document said. (Or, in its own words, it said “a further significant unintended consequence of this policy could be the increase in staff taking action short of striking.”)

In an interview on the Today programme this morning, Shapps said he did not accept that the bill would make strikes more likely. When pressed on why the government’s own impact assessment said the opposite, he played down the significance of the document. He said:

Well, impact assessments do the job of, if you like, having a look all around and seeing, what would be the risks, what are the opportunities and so they often say these things.

He also claimed that legislation of this kind worked effectively in other countries.

When it was put to him that the government was ignoring its own assessment of what these laws would do, Shapps said the government had “taken note of that research and looked at how we can best introduce those measures”.

I will post more from his morning interview round shortly.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Rishi Sunak chairs cabinet.

9.45am: Andrew Griffith, a Treasury minister, gives evidence to the Treasury committee on the cryptocurrency industry.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

11.30am: Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow work and pensions secretary, gives a speech on Labour plans intended to get more older people, and people with medical conditions, back into work.

11.30am: Dominic Raab, the justice secretary and deputy PM, takes justice questions in the Commons.

12pm: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, visits an energy research centre ahead of the publication of the Scottish government’s energy strategy.

At some point today the government is publishing its strikes (minimum service levels) bill. And Steve Barclay, the health secretary, is visiting a 111 call centre.

I’ll try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com