Issue 28; 7 November 1999
Enterprise
The Chancellor and the Prime Minister both took the opportunity
of the CBI conference to promote enterprise and technology
at the beginning of last week, but towards the end of the
week their Parliamentary actions had belied their conference
words.
Mass lobby
Over the weekend of 30th and 31st October, PCG posted details
of its lobby of Parliament, intended to educate and inform
individual MPs about the ramifications of their actions
during the vote on IR35. It was clear the Government intended
to reintroduce the Clauses -which had earlier been removed
by the Lords- during the final stages of the Welfare Reform
Bill in the Commons. It was also clear that - in order to
ensure the Bill didn't run out of time - the Government
would 'guillotine' the debates. The guillotining provision
received as much criticism as the controversial clauses
on disability and IR35.
Shadow Chancellor Francis Maude and Shadow Paymaster General
Quentin Davies invited PCG members to a meeting in the Commons
prior to Wednesday's debate.
Originally a room was booked for 20 people, but after some
encouragement by PCG a room, which could hold 100 was organised.
Even this proved to be an underestimation as several hundred
contractors crowded into the room and the meeting had to
be moved to a larger room which was under decoration at
the time.
Francis Maude, David Willetts (Shadow DSS) and Lord Higgins
put forward the reasons why the Opposition disapproved of
IR35. Andy White, Chairman of PCG, explained how the PCG
had been born and the strength of feeling among contractors
who had been motivated to take on the Government over these
proposals.
The meeting was immediately followed by Prime Minister's
Question time - the weekly opportunity for Hague to tackle
Blair in a Parliamentary head-to-head on a subject of his
choosing. On Wednesday, it was IR35 with reference to PCG
which dominated the questions, as Blair, for the first time,
was required to make public comments on it.
In the meantime, hundreds of PCG members were forming queues
to lobby their MPs. At one point, the weight of numbers
threatened to overwhelm the House of Commons lobby system
as policemen and members handed out 'green cards', the system
whereby MPs are summoned to meet their constituents. In
the first hour, 400 green cards were submitted - compared
to the usual 25.
The response of MPs varied considerably, but all were better
informed at the end of the meetings than they had been prior
to it. The lobbying continued throughout the day, with one
contractor still waiting to see his MP at midnight.
PCG had hired the downstairs bar at the 'politico pub'
the Red Lion and members held informal meetings throughout
the day with progress updates.
Andy White, David Ramsden and myself were privileged to
sit on the floor of the House of Commons to witness the
debate on IR 35, limited by the Government to between 10pm
and midnight. It was disapointing to see Dawn Primarolo
leave the floor of the House at 10 pm and not be present
to witness the debate. Stephen Timms, DSS Minister, outlined
the case for the Government. With the exception of one Labour
MP who sought clarification on a point, no-one from the
Government's backbenches spoke. The rest of the two hour
debate was dominated by Opposition MPs who, in the main,
were working from PCG briefings, PCG members' letters and
the lobbying from earlier in the day. Although the Government
never had more than two dozen people on its benches when
the Division Bell rang at midnight, IR35 was reinstated
in the Bill by 345 votes to 203.
The Opposition MPs expressed their displeasure at the manner
in which the Government had guillotined the debate and insisted
on pushing the outstanding clauses to a vote until 1.30pm.
During this time several MPs came up to us to thank PCG
members for their support.
William Hague
On Thursday evening, the PCG were present in numbers at
a dinner attended by the opposition leader. Andy White sat
next to William Hague, who, during his after dinner speech,
made four references to PCG and IR35, using it as an example
of the 'Government's stealth tax'. Following the dinner
Andy White said " It was an excellent opportunity to brief
the opposition leader on the knowledge based economy and
the damage IR 35 could do to it. We would welcome the chance
to carry out a similar briefing for Tony Blair and Charles
Kennedy. We are confident that by continuing with our education
process we will ensure that IR 35 is proportionate to the
aims. As one of our members said, and it was quoted during
the debate on Wednesday. -You cannot have a knowledge-based
economy with an ignorance based Government"
Kind regards
Susie Hughes
Press Officer, Professional Contractors Group
e: [email protected]
Links:
for links to Hansard:
debate and PMQ's; plus text of Andy White's speech at the
House of Commons.
What happens next?
The Bill now returns to the House of Lords for considerations
of the Commons action. While technically the Lords could
vote the clauses out for a second time, it would be unusual
for the Lords to take this action after the Commons have
reinstated clauses.
The whole process will be repeated in April as the income
tax element of the measure will need to be put forward in
the Finance bill.
The PCG will be carrying out the following.
- Engage in the "consultation" concerning the guidelines
to the new rules. A draft guidance paper is to be issued
by the Inland Revenue and the Minister confirmed in the
House that it would be "sent out to representative bodies
- the Professional Contractors Group and others.." Kevin
Miller our Accountant will be leading our team on this.
As they say "the devil is in the detail" and if anyone
is a able to make sense of these complex rules it will
be Kevin Miller who produced the PCG alternative RIA and
has been involved since March on this issue.
- Continue with the education of the Government and opposition
parties as well as Clients, Accountants, Agents and other
representative bodies. The members themselves, who have
the benefit of our briefing papers and discussion forums
to ensure they are fully briefed, will carry this out.
- Provide an independent source of information to Contractors
in the knowledge-based industries. Encourage them to join
up and lend their support. To paraphrase Kennedy, if you
join the PCG "ask not what PCG can do for you, but what
you can do for the PCG".
- Following confirmation of the new rules, provide briefing
packs for our members including arranging seminars around
the Country to ensure, as far as possible, members are
fully briefed. We will not carry this out until we have
certainty and would hope that this will take place sometime
in January. Part of the process will be to work with other
representative bodies and draft standard contracts. It
will be important when a Contractor starts with a client
in April -under a new contract that will demonstrate self
employment- that the client has received the same contract
from their representative body. The new rules will create
great uncertainty and we must work hard to ameliorate
the impact
- Build on the web site and the organisation to ensure
that, if required, we can again make our voice heard during
the Finance bill and in the run up to the next election.
As Vincent Cable said to the House - " Some of us are
beginning to receive postbags comparable to those on fox
hunting" That is Unlike Frank Dobson's letters supporting
his Mayoral campaign, there is not a form letter amongst
them. The web site will also build into a permanent public
record of the actions of individual MP's to allow contractors,
come the next election, to check on their position on
this issue. Contractors understand, that if they do not
perform, daily, then contracts are terminated and it is
unlikely they will work for that client again. It is one
of the differences compared to permanent employment. In
Aberdeen it is common knowledge that the Client will write
the following initials on a contractors details -NBA-
Not Back Again. On the ballot papers it will be easier,
just a cross in a different box!
Finally I would like to thank all those who attended the
Mass Lobby on Wednesday. With only a few days notice, close
to a thousand Contractors marched on the House of Commons,
slipped past the media cameras, who quite rightly were focused
on the disabled campaigners, and took our message direct
to the people whom we elect to govern our Country. Our strategy
has been and will continue to be; no fanfare or spin. It
is my belief that increasingly we will turn away from the
"Orwellian" control of the media as exercised by this Government
and look for a message with substance rather than style.
Our web site and this newsletter allow us to communicate
effectively with the target audience who we wish to influence
- The Government and the Contractor. We present the information
raw and unfiltered, you then make up your own mind as to
our case. The Internet cuts out the middleman - in this
case the media and allows us to go direct. It was quite
amazing to see Central Lobby overflowing with Contractors
and MP's queuing to see their constituents. William Hague
told me that during PMQ his attention was drawn to the bundles
of green cards being passed down the benches. To those who
could not make it, many thanks for the messages of support.
Kind regards
Andy White
Chairman, Professional Contractors Group
e: [email protected]
Membership is invited from Contractors in the Knowledge
based sector.
Associate membership is also available to Clients, Agents,
Accountants and representative bodies.
You can join the PCG (use the online joining form) at https://www.pcgroup.org.uk
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