Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of jobs that could be lost due to increased National Insurance contributions in (1) hospices, (2) social care, and (3) community and primary health care.

We have taken the necessary decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances at the Autumn Budget, enabling the Spending Review settlement of a £22.6 billion increase in resource spending for the Department from 2023/24 outturn to 2025/26.

The employer National Insurance contributions rise will be implemented from April 2025, and NHS England has set out the approach to funding providers in planning guidance for the next financial year, a copy of which is attached.