Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the cost to (a) private and (b) public sector organisations of implementing the National Living Wage in each of the next three years.

The Government’s Impact Assessment for the introduction of the National Living Wage estimates that the cost of increasing pay to the £7.20 rate on private sector and public sector employers will be approximately £800m and £36m respectively in 2016/17. The Government has not produced an estimate for each of the next three years.