Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the proposed increase in the rate of employers' National Insurance contributions on social care services.

The Government is providing at least £600 million of new grant funding for social care in 2025/26, as part of the broader estimated real-terms uplift to core local government spending power of approximately 3.2%. We will continue to work with the adult social care sector to understand the pressures on adult social care delivery and local authority budgets.