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Select committee: Work and Pensions Committee

Self-employment and the gig economy inquiry

Closed Opened 25 Nov 2016 Closed 3 Oct 2019

Work and Pensions Committee Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗

Inquiry scope (the committee's words)
The Government must close the loopholes that are currently allowing "bogus" self-employment practices, which are potentially creating an extra burden on the welfare state while simultaneously reducing the tax contributions that sustain it.

Where it stands

The inquiry is closed, opened 25 November 2016.

The committee has published 1 report, most recently 13th Report - Self-employment and the gig economy on 1 May 2017.

The government's response

Published 19 December 2017.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The Government welcomes the report and defers its response on the employment status recommendations until it responds to the Taylor Review, while responding now to the Department for Work and Pensions recommendations and not accepting some of them.

  • On employment status (recommendations 1 to 4), it proposes to respond "when the Government publishes its response to the Taylor Review", which it says "will respond to them shortly".
  • It does not accept that New Enterprise Allowance advisers should conduct Gateway Interviews, because the determination of gainful self-employment is made by the Secretary of State and is not delegable to a third party.
  • On the Minimum Income Floor, it "cannot agree to suspend the MIF" and does not agree "that the time is right for an independent review", but will continue to monitor and evaluate the impact of self-employment as Universal Credit is rolled out.
  • On pensions, it has committed to consider how self-employed people might be helped to save for retirement as part of its automatic enrolment review, and to report to Parliament on that review by the end of 2017.

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error

Reports

All reports

Evidence

  • 5 oral evidence sessionsLatest 29 March 2017
All evidence

Recent activity

Reports

1 report

Oral evidence sessions

5 sessions

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Date Session and witnesses Source
29 Mar 2017
Oral evidence session
No witnesses recorded 		View ↗
22 Mar 2017
Oral evidence session
No witnesses recorded 		View ↗
1 Mar 2017
Oral evidence session
No witnesses recorded 		View ↗
22 Feb 2017
Oral evidence session
No witnesses recorded 		View ↗
6 Feb 2017
Oral evidence session
No witnesses recorded 		View ↗

Correspondence

12 letters

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PublishedDirectionLetter
6 Apr 2017 To committee Letter from Uber to Frank Field MP re contract clarifications 13-3-2017
6 Apr 2017 To committee Letter from Frank Field MP to Andrew Byrne Uber re additional documents 1-3-2017
6 Apr 2017 To committee Letter from Frank Field MP to Andrew Byrne Uber 20-3-2017
6 Apr 2017 To committee Letter from Frank Field MP to Carole Woodhead Hermes Ltd 20-3-2017
6 Apr 2017 To committee Letter from Frank Field MP to Dan Warne Deliveroo 1-03-2017
6 Apr 2017 To committee Letter from Amazon to Frank Field MP 20-3-2017
6 Apr 2017 To committee Letter from Deliveroo to Frank Field MP 17-3-2017
6 Apr 2017 To committee Letter from Hermes to Frank Field MP 10-03-2017
6 Apr 2017 To committee Letter from Frank Field MP to Amazon re Amazon Flex couriers 1-3-2017
6 Apr 2017 To committee Letter from Frank Field MP to Carole Woodhead Hermes re additional evidence 1-3-2017
7 Mar 2017 Not recorded Frank Field to Gary Simpson Parcelfoce 7-03-2017
7 Mar 2017 Not recorded Frank Field to Dwain McDonald DPD 7-03-2017