Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the number of people who are incorrectly classified as self employed in the UK.

Determining employment status can be complicated and is based on the reality of each working relationship. Government has not made an estimate of the numbers of people in each status, but shares concerns regarding insecure work. This is why in October 2016 my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister asked Matthew Taylor to carry out an independent review to consider employment practices and whether they need to change to keep pace with modern business models. We understand that Matthew Taylor is working to complete his report at the moment, and expect it to be published soon.