Covid-19 and support for self-employed people

That this House recognises that there are over 4.9 million self-employed workers in the UK contributing over £275 billion to the UK economy; welcomes the Federation of Small Businesses’ #ThinkSelfEmployed campaign to raise awareness of the current lack of provision for these workers in the Government’s fiscal package to tackle the economic effects of the covid-19 pandemic; commends those self-employed people who have taken part in the #ThinkSelfEmployed campaign to make their needs known to the Government; welcomes the Chief Secretary to the Treasury’s pledge to the self-employed that help is coming; recognises however that many self-employed workers are already out of pocket and that the utmost urgency is therefore required in the Government’s response; calls on the Government to give a degree of certainty to the self-employed on when this help will come; and further calls on the Government to heed the calls from the Scottish Cabinet Secretaries for Finance and for Economy, Fair Work and Culture to expand the jobs retention scheme to cover the self-employed and widen access to statutory sick pay to the self-employed.