Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 11 November 2024 to Question 12552 on Employers’ Contributions: Hospices, what definition of the public sector her Department plans to use to decide whether to allocate funding for the cost of higher National Insurance; and how funding will be allocated to devolved public bodies in (a) Wales, (b) Scotland and (c) Northern Ireland.

The UK Government will provide support for departments and other public sector employers for additional employer National Insurance contributions costs. This funding will be allocated to UK Government departments, with the Barnett formula applying in the usual way for the devolved governments.

For the purposes of defining support for Employer NICs costs, the Government has used the Office for National Statistics (ONS) classification of the public sector boundary. This is the usual approach for classification of the public sector boundary, for example in relation to public sector spending, public sector borrowing and public sector debt.

This funding will be in addition to the devolved governments’ record Spending Review settlements for 2025-26, which are the largest in real terms of any settlements since devolution.