Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the proposed increase in the rate of employer National Insurance contributions on (a) trends in the level of recruitment and (b) the provision of care in dentistry.

We have taken necessary decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances at Autumn Budget 2024, which enabled the Spending Review settlement of a £22.6 billion increase in resource spending for the Department from 2023/24 outturn to 2025/26.

The employer National Insurance rise will be implemented in April 2025, and the Department will set out further details on the allocation of funding for next year in due course.