Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department made, prior to the decision being made, of the potential effect of the rise in Employer National Insurance Contributions from April 2022 on (a) employment rates and (b) wages.

The Government has made a number of assessments of the impact of the introduction of the Health and Social Care Levy, which were published alongside the announcement. These include the distributional analysis of the impact of the combined tax and spending announcements, a technical annex in our plan for health and social care, and a Tax Information and Impact Note.

Further, the Office for Budget Responsibility set out their assessment of the economic effects of the Levy, including the impact on labour supply and wages, in their latest Economic and Fiscal Outlook: https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-october-2021/