Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of increasing the rate of statutory sick pay on financial costs for small businesses.

The Department undertook a Regulatory Impact Assessment covering the measures in the Employment Rights Bill to strengthen Statutory Sick Pay: removing the Lower Earnings Limit and the waiting period. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/employment-rights-bill-impact-assessments. The Regulatory Impact Assessment estimates that small and micro businesses pay around 60% of the annual SSP cost to employer.