Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of exempting (a) GP surgeries, (b) social care providers, (c) hospices, (d) NHS dentists, (e) charitable providers, and (f) pharmacies from the increase in employer's National Insurance contributions.

The Government has taken a number of difficult but necessary decisions on tax, welfare, and spending to fix the public finances, fund public services, and restore economic stability after the situation we inherited from the previous administration.

The Government will provide support for departments and other public sector employers for additional employer National Insurance costs only. This does not include support for the private sector, including private sector firms contracted by central or local government.

This is the usual approach Government takes to supporting the public sector with additional employer NICs costs, as was the case with the previous government’s Health and Social Care Levy.

As a result of this measure, along with others announced at Budget, the NHS will receive an extra £22.6 billion increase in resource spending which will benefit employers.