Following the announcement that Liz Truss has won the Conservative leadership race and will be new Prime Minister of the UK, the recruitment industry and IR35 experts have reacted to the news highlighting her pledge to review IR35.

Tania Bowers, Global Public Policy Director at APSCo, said, “We welcomed the reports that Ms Truss intends to review IR35 legislation – a move which we feel is needed in light of challenges to the temporary recruitment market – but this needs to be supplemented with more definitive actions to create a future-fit dynamic labour market.”

“At APSCo Global we want to work with policymakers to ensure we have a truly sustainable, global and flexible workforce fit for the future,” Bowers added. “We are calling on the government to introduce an Employment Bill which will better reflect modern day working post-pandemic than current legislation, more suitable high-skilled visas that can allow the UK labour market to remain agile and alive to specific sector labour shortages. Flexible and pragmatic training initiatives designed to maximise businesses' access to talent across the workforce is also essential. In acting on these policy items, the UK will continue to be a world leader in new and existing markets.”

APSCo added that there are three crucial policy areas that Truss needs to focus on to support the UK’s economy to balance the impact of the pandemic, Brexit and the roll out of Off-Payroll:

• Introduce the Employment Bill: Alongside Truss’s plans to review off-payroll legislation, the introduction of the Employment Bill is urgently needed to help bring regulation of the recruitment market and umbrella companies in line with 21^st century needs. This includes greater support for self-employed and independent contractors as well as clear definitions of the flexible workforce to prevent disguised remuneration.
• Create a truly Global Britain: As the government negotiates global trade deals, APSCo has recommended that these discussions focus on skills, the workforce and the mutual recognition of services and professional qualifications as well as tariffs and goods. The simplification of the process by which self-employed contractors obtain visas is also needed in a skill short economy.
• Tackle Skills Shortages: APSCo’s research shows vacancy levels across all sectors are currently exceeding 2019 levels, suggesting jobs are remaining unfilled. Flexible and pragmatic training courses that are accessible to people across the entire workforce and a reform of the Apprenticeship Levy are a few of the steps APSCo has identified as necessary. The trade association has also called for the development of a national strategy, recognising urban hubs and regions with existing strengths in particular skills and industries.

Crawford Temple, CEO of Professional Passport, A UK-based assessor of payment intermediary compliance said, “Throughout her campaign Liz Truss has highlighted her commitment to reviewing IR35 and delving deeper into the loan charge scandal and whilst all this is very relevant and valid these are historic situations.  We want to see her leading the way to bring government bodies like HMRC and The Treasury into the twenty-first century so that they can truly start to address issues like the disguised remuneration schemes and tax avoidance schemes that are harming the UK economy.” 

“She could start by working more closely with compliance bodies,” Temple said. “HMRC has been woefully inadequate in stamping out these dodgy schemes and as we face a cost-of-living crisis, an energy crisis and a real recession then combined this will create a perfect storm for contractors to be tempted into schemes that are still being allowed to thrive and put workers into real financial hardship in the long run.”

Seb Maley, CEO of IR35 expert Qdos, said, “Liz Truss has the opportunity to win start winning back the support of the self-employed, who have been badly let down in recent years and lost faith in the Conservative Party. For far too long, freelancers, contractors and self-employed workers have been overlooked by the government and hit with short-sighted tax reforms and hikes that threaten this way of working. 

 “But to seize this opportunity, the new prime minister must deliver on her promises,” Maley said. “This starts with IR35. Ms Truss has said she will review the IR35 rules, which are flawed and create big problems not just for contractors but also for the businesses engaging them. An independent review of IR35 that results in change must be prioritised – that is if the new Prime Minister genuinely wants to unlock the full potential of the flexible workforce.”

“A Qdos poll of 476 contractors showed that 94% believe Liz Truss’s pledge to review IR35 is an “empty promise,” Maley said.

Meanwhile, in a tweet, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation said, “Congratulations to Liz Truss the soon to be new Prime Minister. The REC looks forward to working with the new government on maintaining a strong and sustainable labour market. Times are difficult for businesses and consumers – there’s a lot of work to do.”