Lord Londesborough (CB)

My Lords, I will speak to Amendments 3, 12 and 59, to which I have added my name. I declare my interests as an investor in SMEs, including those employing part-time workers. In the interests of economic growth and especially flexibility in the labour market, which is so crucial for sectors such as hospitality and retail, the time has come, to use the words of the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, to aggressively restructure an employer’s NICs scheme rather than subject all employers to one set rate of contributions and, indeed, thresholds, on which I will speak later in group five. Indeed, by dropping the threshold from £9,100 to £5,000, Clause 2 is disproportionately hitting employers who, frankly, have no choice but to employ part-time workers, often on a shift basis. Without introducing a lower secondary percentage, such as the 7.5% proposed in Amendment 3, part-time work will be on the retreat, hitting those very workers who are dependent on such employment and who cannot work full-time, including students, parents and family carers. As we have heard, the numbers published today of payrolled employees have dropped by 47,000 during December alone. That is the biggest fall since November 2020. It would be interesting to receive a breakdown of those figures and to see how many of those departing roles were part-time employees. It would be equally interesting to see whether the OBR will revise its forecast. The NI threshold cliff edge discriminates against part-time jobs, raising costs disproportionately for sectors already having to absorb huge increases in the national minimum wage. It does not fit with the world of flexible, part-time or temporary labour. Remember, we are talking about 8.4 million people who are part-time employed. That is one quarter of our workforce. Amendments 3 and 12 would go some way to softening the blow of the new threshold cliff edge contained in Clause 2 and help protect these vital jobs, let alone the working people.