In the face of an unprecedented rise in self-employment, the challenges for these more than five million workers are many. Labour is today convening a self-employed round table to discuss what can be offered to address disparity in social security, pay, job security and protections at work.

As Matthew Taylor indicated in his recent report Good Work, for some, self-employment is about taking up opportunities to be their own boss. However, for others, their self-employed status reflects the realities of the UK’s current labour market, where permanent, high quality jobs are being replaced by increasingly insecure, poor quality and “flexible” jobs.

Last year, we hosted a round table looking into the issues of bogus self-employment. We heard how many of these self-employed workers, including