Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the increase in employer National Insurance contributions introduced in April 2025 on employment levels in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors in Lancashire and the Fylde constituency.

The Government has taken a number of fair and necessary decisions on tax, welfare, and spending to fix the public finances and fund public services. One of these decisions, taken at Autumn Budget 2024, was to increase the rate of employer National Insurance contributions (NICs) whilst reducing the per-employee threshold at which employers start to pay NICs.

Businesses are able to claim employer NICs reliefs including those for under-21s and under-25 apprentices. This means employers pay no employer NICs for apprentices under 25 or employees under 21 on earnings up to £50,270. These reliefs are estimated to have been worth around £2.5 billion in 2025/26.

A Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) was published alongside the introduction of the Bill containing the changes to employer NICs. The TIIN sets out the impact of the policy on the exchequer; the economic impacts of the policy; and the impacts on individuals, businesses and civil society organisations, as well as an overview of the equality impacts.

Estimates of the impact on employment levels on certain sectors in Lancashire and the Fylde constituency, from changes to Employer NICs announced at Autumn Budget 2024, are not available.