Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of the increase in employers National Insurance Contributions on small pubs.

The government published a Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) which set out the impact of the changes, including for businesses, to employer NICs alongside the introduction of the Bill.

The Government decided to protect the smallest businesses from these changes by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500. This means that this year, 865,000 employers are paying no NICs at all, and more than half of all employers are either gaining or seeing no change. Businesses are still be able to claim employer NICs reliefs including those for under-21s and under-25 apprentices.

At Budget 2025, the government asked licensing authorities in England and Wales to explicitly consider the need to promote growth and deliver economic benefits in their decisions and set this out in the first National Licensing Policy Framework.