B

Baroness Noakes (Con)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 29 January 2025

Debate

National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill

Contribution

My Lords, I have Amendment 33 in this group; I thank my noble friends Lady Neville-Rolfe, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon and Lord Howard of Rising for adding their names to it. As my noble friend Lady Neville-Rolfe said, my noble friend Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon is unfortunately unable to join us for the early part of this Committee. He very much regrets that he is not able to take part because he cares a lot about the fate of small and medium-sized businesses. My amendment would delay the commencement of the Bill, and therefore the extra national insurance contributions, until the tax year after an impact assessment focusing on the impact of the Bill on smaller businesses has been published. My amendment is similar to Amendment 59, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, which was debated on our first day in Committee. Amendment 59 required an ex-post impact assessment, while mine is on an ex-ante basis. Amendment 59 also used a rather broad definition of SMEs, including those with employees of up to 250; my amendment is more granular and focuses on the smaller end of the SME spectrum, which is where most SMEs are.

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