Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people will be affected by the proposed changes to IR35 in (a) Medway, (b) Kent and (c) the South East.

The Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) published in July 2019 sets out HMRC’s assessment that the reform to the off-payroll working rules is expected to affect 170,000 individuals. The TIIN can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rules-for-off-payroll-working-from-april-2020/rules-for-off-payroll-working-from-april-2020.

HMRC are undertaking an extensive programme of education and support to help organisations and contractors prepare for the reform. This includes:

• Offering one-to-one support to more than 2,000 of the UK’s biggest employers, and writing directly to 43,000 medium sized businesses and other organisations.
• Providing large and medium sized businesses, public bodies, and charities with factsheets to share with their contractors, and publishing this factsheet on gov.uk.
• Holding workshops with small tax agents, recruitment agencies, charities, and public bodies.
• Holding webinars at least weekly, with small tax agents, recruitment agencies, charities, public bodies and contractors.
• Publishing an enhanced version of the Check Employment Status for Tax online tool in November 2019 to help individuals and organisations make the right status determinations and apply the off-payroll rules correctly.