Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of changes to employer National Insurance contributions on investment by businesses.

The Government has taken a number of difficult but necessary decisions on tax, welfare, and spending to fix the public finances and fund public services.

One of the toughest decisions we took was to raise the rate of employer National Insurance contributions (NICs) from 13.8% to 15%, whilst reducing the per-employee threshold at which employers start to pay National Insurance (the Secondary Threshold) from £9,100 to £5,000.

The Office for Budget Responsibility published the Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO), which sets out a detailed forecast of the economy and public finances.

We acknowledge that, as the OBR set out, employers will pass on some of the costs of this change, as well absorbing some themselves, and employers have a choice about how they respond.