In response to a request from Frank Field MP, the Government has announced the creation of a working party under an independent chair within the Department for Transport to inquire into the pay and working conditions at Uber.

The announcement was made during this afternoon’s Westminster Hall debate which Frank secured on the regulation of working conditions in the private hire industry, within which Uber is a major operator.

Frank has previously published a report, Sweated Labour, which concluded that drivers working with Uber are in danger of taking home as little as £2 an hour – less than a third of the National Living Wage.

Those drivers also have a huge number of risks and charges offloaded to them by the company.

Drivers and operators, as well as Frank, will be invited to contribute to the working party which will help drive regulatory policy in this fast-growing area of the ‘gig economy’.

The Transport Minister, John Hayes MP, pledged during the debate that with the working group in place there would be, ‘no veil, no mask, and nowhere to hide for people who do not do the right thing’.

The Minister pledged, as a second move, to review the guidance issued to local transport authorities on the conditions they can demand from operators before licences are granted, to make clear the extent to which adequate working conditions for drivers can be considered.

Speaking after the debate, Frank said: ‘This is a big, big breakthrough. The Government has acted on the evidence I submitted on the poverty pay and shoddy treatment meted out to some workers at the bottom of the ‘gig economy’, both by commissioning the Taylor Review and now by inquiring specifically around the private hire industry. Watch this space.’

You can watch the debate by clicking here.

You can read Frank's report, Sweated Labour, by clicking here.