The Reform That Wasn’t There—On the Perduring Necessity of a ‘Single Worker Status’ in UK Employment Law

Abstract This article explores the proposal contained in Labour’s Plan to Make Work Pay to move towards a single status of worker in UK employment law. It argues that a reform of the personal scope of application of UK employment legislation is both long overdue and has only become more urgent and necessary, also in light of the coming into force of the Employment Rights Act 2025. The Act introduces several new workers’ rights, but these can be easily circumvented unless a new and comprehensive definition of worker is established in UK labour law. The article presents in greater detail some of the questions that Labour’s Plan identified as central to the idea of introducing a new single worker status. It analyses the impact of the coming into force of the Employment Rights Act 2025 and explores some of the central regulatory questions that Parliament would need to address whenever it chooses to introduce a new single worker status definition, while also identifying some viable regulatory reform options.