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

MPs voted 313 to 194 on 25 March 2025 to reject Lords Amendment 8B to the National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill. The amendment would have given the government powers to exempt hospices, GP practices, NHS-commissioned dentists, pharmacists, and charitable health and care providers from the employer National Insurance rise. By passing the motion to disagree, MPs blocked that exemption from becoming law, keeping the NI increase universal. The vote matters because it determines whether organisations such as hospices and charitable care providers face the full impact of the employer NI rise taking effect from 6 April 2025. The Bill increases the employer NI rate from 13.8% to 15% and lowers the threshold at which employers become liable from £9,100 to £5,000 a year. Conservative shadow minister Gareth Davies cited Hospice UK warnings that the change could cost the hospice sector up to £30 million a year, with individual organisations like St Barnabas hospice in Lincolnshire facing costs running into hundreds of thousands of pounds. The government argued that publicly funded employers would receive direct support, as has been the standard approach with previous NI changes, and pointed to a separate £100 million capital fund and £26 million revenue grant for the hospice sector. Labour MPs voted unanimously in favour of rejecting the Lords amendment, with 279 Labour and 32 Labour and Co-operative Party members voting Aye and none voting No. Every Conservative, Liberal Democrat, SNP, DUP, Plaid Cymru, Reform UK, and Green MP who voted went into the No lobby. Two independents voted Aye and four voted No. The vote is part of a prolonged back-and-forth between the Commons and the Lords over the Bill, with the Lords having returned similar amendments more than once and the Commons disagreeing on each occasion. A parallel division on Amendment 1B, held the same day, produced a nearly identical result of 312 to 190.