{"id":9747,"date":"2025-07-10T11:47:41","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T11:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spotlight.com\/?p=9747"},"modified":"2025-07-29T13:25:53","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T13:25:53","slug":"how-uk-employment-law-changes-will-impact-actors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spotlight.com\/news-and-advice\/the-industry\/how-uk-employment-law-changes-will-impact-actors\/","title":{"rendered":"What Performers Need to Know About Employment Law Changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

New rights for workers and concerns around tax: how the upcoming changes to employment law will affect performers in the UK.<\/span><\/h2>\n

The Labour government is in the process of changing rights for workers in the biggest shake-up of employment law in decades. The government has already introduced legislation to increase the rights of workers in the Employment Rights Bill. However, the government has also proposed streamlining the definition of \u2018worker\u2019 so that as many workers as possible will have access to these new rights when they are implemented.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, changing the definition of workers raises a concern for performers who are \u2018dual status\u2019. Being dual status means that performers are \u2018employed\u2019 for the purpose of employment rights and National Insurance (classes 2 and 4) but are self-employed for tax purposes. Performers are the only workers in the UK to hold this unique classification.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As the government moves to streamline the workers classifications to ensure that as many people working in the UK can access the new rights provided for in the Employment Rights Act, it\u2019s possible that performers will be reclassified as ‘workers only’ and they will lose the separate classification for tax. Therefore, they may lose the financial benefits this classification brings them, a change that could potentially financially exclude many performers from the industry.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To highlight this issue, Spotlight has been in conversation with the Departments for Business and Trade, and Culture, Media and Sport to ensure that the dual status is factored into conversations around this second stage of the Labour government\u2019s efforts to change employment law in the UK.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why Being \u2018Dual Status\u2019 Matters?\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

In 1993, the <\/span>A. D. McCowen and S. A. West V The Commissioners of Inland Revenue case<\/span><\/a> set out how HMRC would treat performers when it came to employment rights and tax. As a performer has to take steps to build a business and incur the costs of maintaining their business beyond attending rehearsals and performances, it was successfully argued that they should be able to claim business expenses against tax. This is because there\u2019s a real risk that performers will incur financial losses as they grow their business. The landmark case was supported by the whole sector, which funded it and lobbied for the government to recognise how actors work in our industry and so, the dual status classification was introduced.<\/span><\/p>\n

The dual status classification is applied only to performers and it recognises their itinerant pattern of work:<\/span><\/p>\n