News

As students digest their A-level results, they should think twice about whether to study for a degree, argues MP Frank Field

BIRKENHEAD MP Frank Field is launching a campaign on behalf of hard-up parents whose families are stretched to breaking point by the different holiday timetables chosen by schools in Wirral

Trade union activism has set off a domino effect against bogus self-employment in the gig economy. A swift legislative response to the Taylor review is now required to effect wholesale change that produces strong upward pressure on wages. A crucial test here will be to extend the protection of the national minimum wage to those who are wrongly labelled “self-employed”.

POLICE squads across Merseyside have stepped up their efforts in recent months to prevent the theft of motorbikes by thugs who then use them to wreak havoc on our streets. Yet in Wirral the problem remains very much alive and kicking – half a dozen incidents have been taken up by my office in the past couple of months alone.

The key is not to keep setting deadlines – i.e. three years for this and three years for something else – but working out an agreement that is best for Britain, whatever the timetable.

The pensioner’s family were so dismayed by his experience they brought it to the attention of Birkenhead MP Frank Field. Mr Field immediately took up the case with hospital trust chief executive David Allison, demanding answers and assurances that everything possible is being done to prevent any repeat.

ESTABLISHING an English parliament was the inevitable outcome once the Blair government began to give way to Scottish nationalism.

A programme of innovative work to improve children’s life chances has been revealed by the Liverpool City Region Child Poverty and Life Chances Commission.

Frank Field, Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, and Rachel Reeves, the new Chair of the Business Committee, have asked Matthew Taylor to give oral evidence to a joint meeting of the Committees. The Chairs intend to question Mr Taylor on his recent report on modern working practices, including how the Government should act to ensure rights and fair pay for gig economy workers.

We need to negotiate a safe harbour so that the negotiations can be completed in a way that gives industry total confidence that moves are going to be made over decisions on investment and employment.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hunger today launches an inquiry into the extent and causes of hunger amongst older people in Britain.

The programme – covering Rock Ferry, Tranmere, Prenton, and the North End of Birkenhead – aims to ensure that children who might otherwise go without food and activities during the holidays are able to eat a decent meal each day and take part in games, arts, crafts, and sports.

If gig companies are required by law always to abide by the minimum wage, even if that means a loss in flexibility, they will need to regulate the supply of labour or pay from their profits the minimum wage when there is not the level of demand to pay all workers at that rate.

As with so many campaigns, the revelation that haemophiliacs were being poisoned by faulty blood products came from a family visiting my constituency surgery. Twins and a son had been fed poisonous blood products.

Labour’s immediate campaign should be twofold. Any new money the party commits should be to reverse the cuts in benefits paid to working-age people.

Frank Field MP asks Treasury if it has calculated impact on tax revenues of liquidation of companies linked to Anderson Group

MP Frank Field was speaking after figures showed graduate pay is stalling compared to those who leave school and go straight into work.

Coverage of Frank’s campaign in the Observer’s Business Leader

Report on the gig economy by Frank Field reveals allegations of ‘poverty pay’ and shoddy treatment at Parcelforce, DPD and British Car Auctions

Frank Field MP and Andrew Forsey posit a simple but ingenious solution: make companies show their workforces are genuinely self-employed

Frank Field is publishing his report days before the publication of Matthew Taylor’s review of modern employment practices which was set up by the government.

“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.”

Labour’s Frank Field said companies such as Uber flout the existing lax rules to get around paying drivers a decent living. His calls in a Westminster debate were met with a positive response from Transport minister John Hayes, who pledged to review the guidance issued to councils.

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.

Speaking today at the British Academy’s conference, Governing England: Devolution and identity in England, Frank Field, MP for Birkenhead, made a plea that all the participants to this debate get over the normal get-out clause for serious discussion, namely that as England is so large there can be no satisfactory federal solution to the post-Brexit governance of the United Kingdom.

Frank Field, Labour MP for Birkenhead, predicted many Wirral households could be left without money they are entitled to over Christmas – because of huge administrative delays and errors in payments.

Employment law must be changed to protect the army of working people toiling away in today’s ‘gig economy’, writes Frank Field MP

The irresistible rise of Uber embodies the rapid growth since 2010 of what is called the ‘gig economy’. As with other companies in the ‘gig economy’, Uber offers consumers rapid, low-cost, convenient access through their smartphones to a bevy of goods and services. It competes with other companies by offering consumers as low a price as possible for its services. Yet there is a human cost to this business model.

The text of Frank’s speech delivered to the Government Statistical Service and Office for National Statistics on Friday 20th June 2017