§ Mr. FlightTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will place in the Library the Treasury's calculations for establishing the total cost to the public sector of the 1 per cent. rise in employers' national insurance contributions from April 2003. [53626]
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§ Mr. Andrew SmithThe estimate of just over £1 billion is based on a percentage of total employer national insurance contributions attributed to the public sector using assumptions supplied by the Revenue departments.
§ Mr. SteenTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate his Department has made of the percentage of additional class 1 secondary national insurance contributions to come from(a) public sector employers and (b) private sector employers in 2003–04. [58042]
§ Dawn PrimaroloIt is estimated that the changes to employer NICs announced in the Budget will add around 0.7 per cent. to pay costs on average next year. The cost to public services will be just over £1 billion which compares with a planned rise in spending on public services of nearly £20 billion. The changes will help to fund improvements to public services and a real terms increase in spending on health over the next five years of over 40 per cent.