Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with (a) the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and (b) the Scottish Government on the financial impact of the Social Care Levy on (i) private and (ii) voluntary sector employers in the social care sector in (A) the UK and (B) Scotland.

HM Treasury Ministers and officials have had several discussions with the devolved administrations, including the Scottish Governments, on the implementation of the Health and Social Care Levy. These discussions cover a range of issues and will continue until and beyond its introduction from April 2022.

The Government has made a number of assessments of the impact of the introduction of the Health and Social Care Levy, which were published alongside the announcement. These include the distributional analysis of the impact of the combined tax and spending announcements, a technical annex in our plan for health and social care and a Tax Information and Impact Note.

Further, the Office for Budget Responsibility set out their assessment of the economic effects of the Levy in their latest Economic and Fiscal Outlook. This can be found here: https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-october-2021/