Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of minimum wage rises on hiring practices of pub chains.

The Government published an Impact Assessment (IA) for the 2025 National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage (NLW) rates, which includes a breakdown of the expected impacts by sector. The IA also sets out the economic literature to date, which shows that increases to the NLW have had a limited impact on labour demand, as measured by employment levels and hours worked.