National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill

Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts Excerpts

Report stage
Tuesday 25th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Con)]

My Lords, the number of times that I have heard debates in this House calling for a greater degree of post-legislative scrutiny—seeing whether we got what we thought we were going to get—is legion. Any effort to try to make sure that our judgment of what the Government of the day were proposing is worth having because it starts to increase the sum of human knowledge.

I am sorry that the noble Lord, Lord Eatwell, took such a dim view of it all, and I rather regret he sullied his comments with an attack on the previous Conservative Government’s economic policy, but so be it. I was not clear whether he was saying that it is a bad thing to do in principle or that the drafting is defective in practice. I am sure that if he felt that, in principle, it was a good idea to do it, our Front Bench would be happy to work with him to make sure that the drafting reached the economic standards that he felt would make it useful and worth while. However, it is a mistake just to discard, without further thought, an attempt to see what happens after the event.

Therefore, which of these amendments is the best? I am not sure, but “there’s gold in them thar hills”, and we should be mining it.

[Lord Londesborough (CB)]

My Lords, I will briefly speak in support of Amendment 38, in the names of the noble Baronesses, Lady Noakes and Lady Neville-Rolfe, to which I have put my name.

Given the enormity of the Bill, with its intention to raise £25 billion in NICs, and given the current broad-brush, macro impact note that came with it, it is surely incumbent on the Government to carry out sector-by-sector reviews and within six months. In particular, the impact on employment levels and hours worked in each of these sectors needs to be looked at, and there will be huge variations—anecdotally, we are getting evidence that variations are already there.

These reviews would also help the Government in shaping their industrial and sector strategies. I do not agree with the noble Lord, Lord Eatwell, that these studies are, in his words, “econometrically impossible”; yes, they are challenging, but not impossible. With the right will, suitable frameworks can be established for each of these sectors, and it is vital that this analysis is carried out.