National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill: Motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 5B

Parliament voted on 25 March 2025 to reject Lords Amendment 5B to the National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill, passing the motion to disagree by 311 votes to 192. The amendment, brought back by the House of Lords after an earlier version had already been rejected by the Commons, sought to exempt certain health and social care providers, including GP practices, NHS-commissioned dentists, NHS-commissioned pharmacists, care providers and charitable providers, from the employer National Insurance contribution increases contained in the Bill. The government's successful vote means those exemptions will not be written into law.

The Bill raises the rate of secondary Class 1 National Insurance contributions paid by employers from 13.8% to 15%, and simultaneously lowers the threshold at which employers begin paying those contributions from £9,100 to £5,000 per year. The government is compensating large public sector employers, including NHS England, central government departments and local authorities, for the increased costs. However, independent contractors who deliver NHS-commissioned services, such as GPs, dentists and pharmacists, as well as hospices and private social care providers, do not receive equivalent compensation. Critics argue this creates a structural disparity in which the services most reliant on low-paid care workers and fixed public funding face the sharpest cost increases with the least capacity to absorb them.

The vote divided almost entirely along party lines. All 277 Labour MPs and 32 Labour and Co-operative MPs who voted supported the government's position. Every Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Scottish National Party, Democratic Unionist Party, Plaid Cymru and Reform UK member who voted opposed it. There were no notable rebels on either side. The vote was one of several on the same day, including a parallel division on Lords Amendment 1B, which the government also defeated by 312 to 190, and it follows a pattern seen in related legislation, including the Non-Domestic Rating Bill, where the Commons has consistently overridden Lords amendments on tax and fiscal matters in the same parliamentary period.