Treasury minister to give evidence to Lords off-payroll working inquiry

This evidence session will be streamed live on Parliament TV.

At 4.15pm the Sub-Committee will take evidence from:

• Rt. Hon. Lucy Frazer QC MP, Financial Secretary to the Treasury
• Carol Bristow, Director of Individuals Policy, HMRC
• Pete Downing, Deputy Director, Employment Status and Intermediaries, HMRC
• Suzy Kantor, Director, Personal Tax, Welfare & Pensions, HM Treasury.

Question the Sub-Committee is likely to ask include:

• Have the new off-payroll working rules achieved their objective?
• Has the implementation of the new rules gone as smoothly as could be expected?
• What is the overall impact of these new rules on the labour market?
• Is the revised estimate of the costs to business of applying these new rules, around £19 million one-off costs and then £8.4 million ongoing costs, correct?
• Is the Check Employment Status Tool (CEST) fit for purpose?
• Are many businesses determining all engagements as inside the off-payroll working rules?
• Some businesses appear to be passing on their own liability for employers’ NICs to contractors by way of deductions from their pay rate. Will the Government intervene?

This is a follow-up inquiry to the Sub-Committee’s April 2020 report, ‘Off-payroll working: treating people fairly’, on the Government's proposals for moving responsibility for assessing compliance with its off-payroll working rules (IR35) from contractors to those who engage them.