Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what the average length of neonatal care leave has been since 6 April 2025; and whether they will publish a breakdown of the number of parents taking neonatal care leave for each individual week of entitlement.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC does not receive data on exact claim duration. However, it is possible to estimate the duration of a claim based on total amounts of Statutory Neonatal Care Pay claimed. The average length of a claim is currently estimated at 2.3 weeks. The distribution of this is shown in the table below:
SNCP Claims in Tax Year 2025-26 | |
Estimated Claim Duration | Cases |
1 week | 800 |
2 weeks | 500 |
3 weeks | 200 |
4 weeks | 200 |
5 weeks | 100 |
6 weeks | 100 |
Notes:
1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2025. RTI is subject to revision or updates.
2) Cases have been rounded to nearest 100.
Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many parents have (1) taken neonatal care leave, (2) received neonatal care pay, and (3) received both neonatal care leave and pay, since the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023 came into force on 6 April 2025.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC does not hold information on (1) the number of parents that have taken Neonatal Care Leave and (3) the number of parents that have received both Neonatal Care Leave and Pay.
HMRC does hold data on Statutory Neonatal Care Pay provided by Real Time Information, HMRC’s database that holds Pay as You Earn information relating to employees. Using data from April-December 2025, an estimated 1,900 individuals were in receipt of Statutory Neonatal Care Pay. This data was extracted from HMRC’s Real-Time Information in January 2026 and is subject to revision or updates.
Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the cost to early years education providers of the changes to employer National Insurance contributions announced in the Autumn Budget 2024 (HC 295).
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government has taken a number of difficult but necessary decisions on tax, welfare, and spending to repair the public finances, rebuild public services, and restore economic stability after the situation we inherited from the previous government.
The Government has protected the smallest businesses from the impact of the increase to employers’ National Insurance by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500, which means that 865,000 employers will pay no employer NICs at all next year.
Early years providers play a crucial role in driving economic growth and that is why we have committed to delivering the expansion of government-funded childcare and invested £370m at the Spending Review in opening 3,000 new school-based nurseries in this parliament.
At the Budget in October 2024, the Chancellor announced that total funding will rise to over £8 billion in 2025-26 on early years entitlements, followed by an announcement at the Spending review of an additional £1.6bn per year by 2028-29. On top of this, the Department for Education confirmed an additional £75 million of funding in 2025-26 to support the childcare sector to deliver the final phase of expanded childcare entitlements from September 2025, alongside a further £25 million to support childcare for disadvantaged children through the early years pupil premium.
Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many payments of statutory (1) maternity, (2) paternity, and (3) adoption, pay were reclaimed from His Majesty's Revenue and Customs at (a) the standard rate of 92 per cent, and (b) the Small Employers' Relief rate of 108.5 per cent, in each of the last 10 tax years.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Data for statutory payments for the financial year 2024-25 has not yet been fully analysed as the financial year has only recently ended. Data for financial years 2019-20 until 2023-24 is provided below. HMRC do not have data readily available for Statutory payments before 2019-20 and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
The tables below show the number of PAYE schemes claiming each statutory payment by tax year. Note that the scheme count for reclaims does not reflect the total number of reclaims, as schemes may submit multiple claims within a single tax year.
Statutory Maternity Pay | ||
Date | Number of schemes | Number of schemes |
2019-20 | 138,100 | 62,200 |
2020-21 | 132,900 | 62,800 |
2021-22 | 134,500 | 63,000 |
2022-23 | 132,500 | 61,000 |
2023-24 | 130,200 | 58,600 |
Notes:
1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.
2) PAYE scheme counts have been rounded to nearest 100.
3) The table shows the count of PAYE schemes with reclaims, using schemes as a proxy for business count.
Statutory Paternity Pay | ||
Date | Number of schemes | Number of schemes |
2019-20 | 55,100 | 13,800 |
2020-21 | 44,200 | 10,200 |
2021-22 | 53,600 | 14,600 |
2022-23 | 54,600 | 15,700 |
2023-24 | 56,200 | 15,000 |
Notes:
1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.
2) PAYE scheme counts have been rounded to nearest 100.
3) The table shows the count of PAYE schemes with reclaims, using schemes as a proxy for business count.
Statutory Adoption Pay | ||
Date | Number of schemes | Number of schemes |
2019-20 | 3,100 | 400 |
2020-21 | 2,800 | 300 |
2021-22 | 2,900 | 300 |
2022-23 | 2,800 | 400 |
2023-24 | 2,900 | 400 |
Notes:
1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.
2) PAYE scheme counts have been rounded to nearest 100.
3) The table shows the count of PAYE schemes with reclaims, using schemes as a proxy for business count.
The data below summarises the total number of employers with Employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) liabilities of £45,000 or less for the financial years 2022–23 to 2024–25. HMRC does not hold readily available data on the number of employers by the value of their total Employer NIC liabilities for years prior to 2022–23, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
| 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 |
Number of Employers with Employer NIC liabilities of £45,000 or under | 1,551,000 | 1,580,000 | 1,621,000 |
Notes:
1) Figures rounded to nearest thousand.
2) Figures include employers whose Employer NIC liabilities = £0
3) Figures exclude employers whose Employer NIC liabilities are unknown.
4) Data is RTI data matched to Business Lookup Table data.
The Small Employer’s Relief is a flat rate for all qualifying employers whose Employer National Insurance Contributions (Employer NICs) were £45,000 or under in the previous tax year.
The rate is split into two parts; 100% of the payment of Statutory Pay, plus an additional amount to cover the Employer NIC liabilities arising from the Statutory Pay.
It is calculated based on the rules for Statutory Maternity Pay, which makes up the majority of the claims received. Statutory Maternity Pay level is equal to 90% of average weekly earnings for the first 6 weeks, and the lower of £187.18 and 90% of average weekly earnings for the subsequent 33 weeks. [N.B. Taken from here: https://www.gov.uk/maternity-pay-leave/pay]
Prior to April 2025, the Small Employer’s Relief rate was 103%. From April 2025, Employer NICs is charged at a rate of 15% on earnings salary over £96 a week (equivalent to £5,000 a year). The 8.5% therefore reflects the value of Employer NICs at the current rate as a percentage of Statutory Maternity Pay over the 39 weeks the employee is eligible for.
Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of businesses who have class 1 National Insurance contributions of £45,000 or less in each of the past 10 tax years.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Data for statutory payments for the financial year 2024-25 has not yet been fully analysed as the financial year has only recently ended. Data for financial years 2019-20 until 2023-24 is provided below. HMRC do not have data readily available for Statutory payments before 2019-20 and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
The tables below show the number of PAYE schemes claiming each statutory payment by tax year. Note that the scheme count for reclaims does not reflect the total number of reclaims, as schemes may submit multiple claims within a single tax year.
Statutory Maternity Pay | ||
Date | Number of schemes | Number of schemes |
2019-20 | 138,100 | 62,200 |
2020-21 | 132,900 | 62,800 |
2021-22 | 134,500 | 63,000 |
2022-23 | 132,500 | 61,000 |
2023-24 | 130,200 | 58,600 |
Notes:
1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.
2) PAYE scheme counts have been rounded to nearest 100.
3) The table shows the count of PAYE schemes with reclaims, using schemes as a proxy for business count.
Statutory Paternity Pay | ||
Date | Number of schemes | Number of schemes |
2019-20 | 55,100 | 13,800 |
2020-21 | 44,200 | 10,200 |
2021-22 | 53,600 | 14,600 |
2022-23 | 54,600 | 15,700 |
2023-24 | 56,200 | 15,000 |
Notes:
1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.
2) PAYE scheme counts have been rounded to nearest 100.
3) The table shows the count of PAYE schemes with reclaims, using schemes as a proxy for business count.
Statutory Adoption Pay | ||
Date | Number of schemes | Number of schemes |
2019-20 | 3,100 | 400 |
2020-21 | 2,800 | 300 |
2021-22 | 2,900 | 300 |
2022-23 | 2,800 | 400 |
2023-24 | 2,900 | 400 |
Notes:
1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.
2) PAYE scheme counts have been rounded to nearest 100.
3) The table shows the count of PAYE schemes with reclaims, using schemes as a proxy for business count.
The data below summarises the total number of employers with Employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) liabilities of £45,000 or less for the financial years 2022–23 to 2024–25. HMRC does not hold readily available data on the number of employers by the value of their total Employer NIC liabilities for years prior to 2022–23, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
| 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 |
Number of Employers with Employer NIC liabilities of £45,000 or under | 1,551,000 | 1,580,000 | 1,621,000 |
Notes:
1) Figures rounded to nearest thousand.
2) Figures include employers whose Employer NIC liabilities = £0
3) Figures exclude employers whose Employer NIC liabilities are unknown.
4) Data is RTI data matched to Business Lookup Table data.
The Small Employer’s Relief is a flat rate for all qualifying employers whose Employer National Insurance Contributions (Employer NICs) were £45,000 or under in the previous tax year.
The rate is split into two parts; 100% of the payment of Statutory Pay, plus an additional amount to cover the Employer NIC liabilities arising from the Statutory Pay.
It is calculated based on the rules for Statutory Maternity Pay, which makes up the majority of the claims received. Statutory Maternity Pay level is equal to 90% of average weekly earnings for the first 6 weeks, and the lower of £187.18 and 90% of average weekly earnings for the subsequent 33 weeks. [N.B. Taken from here: https://www.gov.uk/maternity-pay-leave/pay]
Prior to April 2025, the Small Employer’s Relief rate was 103%. From April 2025, Employer NICs is charged at a rate of 15% on earnings salary over £96 a week (equivalent to £5,000 a year). The 8.5% therefore reflects the value of Employer NICs at the current rate as a percentage of Statutory Maternity Pay over the 39 weeks the employee is eligible for.
Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government why the specific figure of 108.5 per cent was decided upon for the rate at which Small Employers' Relief is paid.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Data for statutory payments for the financial year 2024-25 has not yet been fully analysed as the financial year has only recently ended. Data for financial years 2019-20 until 2023-24 is provided below. HMRC do not have data readily available for Statutory payments before 2019-20 and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
The tables below show the number of PAYE schemes claiming each statutory payment by tax year. Note that the scheme count for reclaims does not reflect the total number of reclaims, as schemes may submit multiple claims within a single tax year.
Statutory Maternity Pay | ||
Date | Number of schemes | Number of schemes |
2019-20 | 138,100 | 62,200 |
2020-21 | 132,900 | 62,800 |
2021-22 | 134,500 | 63,000 |
2022-23 | 132,500 | 61,000 |
2023-24 | 130,200 | 58,600 |
Notes:
1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.
2) PAYE scheme counts have been rounded to nearest 100.
3) The table shows the count of PAYE schemes with reclaims, using schemes as a proxy for business count.
Statutory Paternity Pay | ||
Date | Number of schemes | Number of schemes |
2019-20 | 55,100 | 13,800 |
2020-21 | 44,200 | 10,200 |
2021-22 | 53,600 | 14,600 |
2022-23 | 54,600 | 15,700 |
2023-24 | 56,200 | 15,000 |
Notes:
1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.
2) PAYE scheme counts have been rounded to nearest 100.
3) The table shows the count of PAYE schemes with reclaims, using schemes as a proxy for business count.
Statutory Adoption Pay | ||
Date | Number of schemes | Number of schemes |
2019-20 | 3,100 | 400 |
2020-21 | 2,800 | 300 |
2021-22 | 2,900 | 300 |
2022-23 | 2,800 | 400 |
2023-24 | 2,900 | 400 |
Notes:
1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.
2) PAYE scheme counts have been rounded to nearest 100.
3) The table shows the count of PAYE schemes with reclaims, using schemes as a proxy for business count.
The data below summarises the total number of employers with Employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) liabilities of £45,000 or less for the financial years 2022–23 to 2024–25. HMRC does not hold readily available data on the number of employers by the value of their total Employer NIC liabilities for years prior to 2022–23, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
| 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 |
Number of Employers with Employer NIC liabilities of £45,000 or under | 1,551,000 | 1,580,000 | 1,621,000 |
Notes:
1) Figures rounded to nearest thousand.
2) Figures include employers whose Employer NIC liabilities = £0
3) Figures exclude employers whose Employer NIC liabilities are unknown.
4) Data is RTI data matched to Business Lookup Table data.
The Small Employer’s Relief is a flat rate for all qualifying employers whose Employer National Insurance Contributions (Employer NICs) were £45,000 or under in the previous tax year.
The rate is split into two parts; 100% of the payment of Statutory Pay, plus an additional amount to cover the Employer NIC liabilities arising from the Statutory Pay.
It is calculated based on the rules for Statutory Maternity Pay, which makes up the majority of the claims received. Statutory Maternity Pay level is equal to 90% of average weekly earnings for the first 6 weeks, and the lower of £187.18 and 90% of average weekly earnings for the subsequent 33 weeks. [N.B. Taken from here: https://www.gov.uk/maternity-pay-leave/pay]
Prior to April 2025, the Small Employer’s Relief rate was 103%. From April 2025, Employer NICs is charged at a rate of 15% on earnings salary over £96 a week (equivalent to £5,000 a year). The 8.5% therefore reflects the value of Employer NICs at the current rate as a percentage of Statutory Maternity Pay over the 39 weeks the employee is eligible for.
Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many reclaims for statutory paternity pay there have been in each of the past five years, broken down by size of business.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
A breakdown of total reclaims for the financial years 2019–20 to 2023–24 is available below. However, data for 2024–25 has not yet been analysed as the tax year has only recently ended.
Further breakdowns of information by size of business are not currently available from published statistics, and collating and verifying the relevant data solely for the purpose of answering this question would incur disproportionate cost.
Date | Sum Recoveries | Count Recoveries |
19/20 | £50,300,000 | 55,100 |
20/21 | £43,800,000 | 44,200 |
21/22 | £52,400,000 | 53,600 |
22/23 | £52,600,000 | 54,600 |
23/24 | £61,500,000 | 56,200 |
Notes:
1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.
2) Sum recoveries rounded to nearest £100,000.
3) Count of recoveries rounded to nearest 100.
Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much statutory paternity pay was reclaimed by businesses in each of the past five years, broken down by size of business.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
A breakdown of total reclaims for the financial years 2019–20 to 2023–24 is available below. However, data for 2024–25 has not yet been analysed as the tax year has only recently ended.
Further breakdowns of information by size of business are not currently available from published statistics, and collating and verifying the relevant data solely for the purpose of answering this question would incur disproportionate cost.
Date | Sum Recoveries | Count Recoveries |
19/20 | £50,300,000 | 55,100 |
20/21 | £43,800,000 | 44,200 |
21/22 | £52,400,000 | 53,600 |
22/23 | £52,600,000 | 54,600 |
23/24 | £61,500,000 | 56,200 |
Notes:
1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.
2) Sum recoveries rounded to nearest £100,000.
3) Count of recoveries rounded to nearest 100.
Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of eligible businesses have reclaimed statutory paternity pay in each of the past five years.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
A breakdown of total reclaims for the financial years 2019–20 to 2023–24 is available below. However, data for 2024–25 has not yet been analysed as the tax year has only recently ended.
Further breakdowns of information by size of business are not currently available from published statistics, and collating and verifying the relevant data solely for the purpose of answering this question would incur disproportionate cost.
Date | Sum Recoveries | Count Recoveries |
19/20 | £50,300,000 | 55,100 |
20/21 | £43,800,000 | 44,200 |
21/22 | £52,400,000 | 53,600 |
22/23 | £52,600,000 | 54,600 |
23/24 | £61,500,000 | 56,200 |
Notes:
1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.
2) Sum recoveries rounded to nearest £100,000.
3) Count of recoveries rounded to nearest 100.
Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Livermore on 25 March (HL5735), in what way they plan to broaden the National Wealth Fund's legislative remit beyond infrastructure.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government will introduce legislation when Parliamentary time allows to broaden the National Wealth Fund’s (NWF) legislative mandate beyond infrastructure to enable it to better support the Government’s growth and clean energy missions.
At that point, and subject to Parliamentary consent, the NWF will focus on enabling investment in capital intensive projects, businesses, or assets. For example, the NWF will have the scope to invest in a broader range of supply chains and critical sectors, such as Artificial Intelligence and quantum, where access to finance gaps exist.