Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to prevent false self-employment in the construction industry.

In 2014 the Government recognised that employment intermediaries were increasingly being used to facilitate false self-employment in the construction industry. In response, the Government introduced tax rules in Finance Act 2014, which means that an intermediary now has to operate PAYE and NICs if there is control over the worker. It was estimated that this would lead to 200,000 workers being correctly treated as employed.

Since April 2015, intermediaries also have to submit a quarterly electronic return if they have made payments to a worker without deductions under PAYE. The first returns were made to HMRC in July and November 2015, and HMRC is using the information to tackle false self-employment through intermediaries.