National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill: Motion to Disagree with Lords Amendment 8

Parliament voted on 19 March 2025 to reject Lords amendment 8 to the National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill, disagreeing with a change that the House of Lords had made to the government's employer National Insurance proposals. The motion to disagree passed by 316 votes to 189. The amendment was one of 21 made by the Lords to the Bill, all of which the government sought to overturn in this session of ping-pong (the back-and-forth process between the two chambers when they disagree on legislation).

Why it matters: The Bill raises the rate of secondary Class 1 National Insurance contributions, which employers pay on workers' wages, and lowers the threshold at which those contributions become payable. Lords amendment 8 was part of a group of amendments that sought to protect certain healthcare and social care providers from those increases, including GPs, dentists, pharmacists, hospices and social care providers. By rejecting this and related Lords amendments, the government maintained its position that direct compensation for employer National Insurance costs would flow only to central government departments, local government and public corporations, not to independent contractors such as GP surgeries or to charities such as hospices. Critics argued this distinction meant services would face real-terms cost increases with no guarantee of equivalent funding, forcing cuts to staffing or appointments.

The vote divided entirely along government-versus-opposition lines, with all 312 Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs voting with the government and every Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Scottish National Party, Reform UK, Plaid Cymru, Green and Democratic Unionist Party MP who voted doing so against. There were no Labour rebels. The debate was heated, with opposition MPs pressing the minister repeatedly on the gap between capital funding announced for hospices and the recurring costs those organisations would face each year. The Bill sits within the government's broader post-Budget fiscal consolidation narrative, with ministers citing a claimed £22 billion inherited fiscal shortfall as the justification for the increases, while opposition MPs pointed to recent figures showing the economy had contracted.