Lord Londesborough (CB)

My Lords, I will briefly speak to Amendment 167 tabled by my noble friend Lord Freyberg, to which I have added my name. It is a thoughtful, pertinent and probing amendment which—dare I suggest at this late hour—the Government should embrace with enthusiasm. I say this because we have often heard during what I think has been 13 days of debate on this Bill that the Government want equal workers’ rights to apply across the board, whatever the size of the business or sector and whether it is private or public. Whenever I and others have argued for exemptions, especially for small and micro businesses, there is a proverbial bucket of cold water thrown our way, accompanied by the message “We don’t want a two-tier workforce”. That view appears to be shared by the Liberal Democrats. I respect that, but I do not agree with it as it fails to recognise the multitude of tiers in the workforce that already exist. This brings me to Amendment 167, which points out that we have several very important groups of workers that do not belong to this single tier, specifically freelancers, the self-employed and sole traders. There are key differences between freelancers and the self-employed, many of whom are sole traders or running their own businesses or partnerships with just one or two contractors. However, they are all treated by HMRC as self-employed and taxed the same way. As my noble friend pointed out, the overall number we are talking about is 4.3 million and growing; that is approaching 14% of the workforce. Given the current dynamics of the jobs market, with falling vacancies in particular, an increasing number look set to join their ranks—whether or not they want to. That is why it is incumbent on the Government to fix the definitions, understand the numbers and assess how they are being impacted by the provisions in this Bill. The Secretary of State should think through how to recognise and treat freelancers, the self-employed and sole traders.