Jobs Market

Lord Palmer of Childs Hill Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

My noble friend makes a very strong point. He will be aware that in the recently published immigration White Paper, the Home Office outlined the steps it is taking to reduce net migration while supporting the labour market across all sectors. On the part of the DWP, my department will play a key part in this work, sitting, as a member of the new labour market evidence group, alongside the Migration Advisory Committee, the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council, Skills England and the relevant devolved skills bodies. I am sure that that will address the concern my noble friend has outlined.

[Lord Palmer of Childs Hill (LD)]

My Lords, what assessment have the Government made of how far the increase in employers’ NICs in April 2025 led to a further switch-out of regular employment into contract work or self-employment as a means of employers avoiding employers’ NICs? There is some evidence that this has been happening, and it is bad news for the public purse, as contractors pay a lot less in NICs and individual workers miss out on all the standard employment rights, including workplace pensions, paid holidays, sick pay et cetera.

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

The noble Lord will be aware that in the Employment Rights Bill we are undertaking a sector-wide, labour force-wide reassessment and review of employment status that will take into account employment, freelance, self-employment and contracted status. I understand the question. Going back to the original point of the noble Lord’s question, we had to take some very difficult decisions as a Government upon coming into office and finding the £22 billion black hole legacy.