Arts and Cultural Sector: Employers’ National Insurance

Debate between Lord Vaizey of Didcot and Baroness Mackenzie of Sherwood

Thursday 15th October 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vaizey of Didcot]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of increases to employer’s National Insurance on the arts and cultural sector.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Baroness Mackenzie of Sherwood) (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord for the Question and pay tribute to his unbroken record as the longest-serving Arts Minister. I am sure I will never match it.

The 2024 Budget required difficult decisions to fix the public finances. Like other employers, cultural organisations were subject to a 1.2 percentage point increase in employers’ national insurance. To protect the smallest businesses and charities, many of which are cultural or creative organisations, the employment allowance more than doubled from £5,000 to £10,500. This means that 900,000 employers have no employer national insurance liability at all. In addition, earlier this year, we announced a historic £1.5 billion Arts Everywhere package, which is expected to reach 1,000 cultural organisations.

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[Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Con)]

My Lords, I do not wish to make my exchange with the Minister too cosy, but I pay tribute to her and welcome her to her position. She has a distinguished record in the arts, not least from stewarding the Cultural Olympiad during the London Olympics.

Nevertheless, I was at a conference yesterday, which was timely, as somebody pointed out that their arts organisation had secured a £50,000 donation that was immediately wiped out by the increase in national insurance contributions. To take one sector—grass-roots music venues—the latest statistics show that one in five people have left that sector because of the impact of national insurance and business rates. This Government seem to give with one hand but take very seriously with the other.

[Baroness Mackenzie of Sherwood (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord. As we know, there have been many pressures on cultural and creative organisations. The noble Lord, from his role as a trustee of the Tate, is better placed than I am to comment on the detail of some of those organisations. The impact for many is that they have not yet recovered the audience levels, and therefore incomes, that they enjoyed before Covid. That is probably the biggest threat for many organisations. We are very aware of the many pressures and, as I said, the historic £1.5 billion Arts Everywhere package is a first step in helping to support those organisations.