Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Minimum and Living Wages

Thursday 13 March 2025 · 4 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 2 Partly answered 2 Not answered 0

Key points

  • More than 3 million workers are expected to receive a pay rise due to increases to the national minimum wage in April.
  • Around 140,000 workers in north-east England will feel the benefits of this direct pay rise.
  • The employment allowance in the Budget is being doubled, with the threshold removed for some smaller businesses.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Kenneth Stevenson Lab Airdrie and Shotts
Employment
Context

The MP is concerned about the impact of recent changes to wages on his constituents in Airdrie and Shotts.

Question

What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the national minimum wage and national living wage on families in Airdrie and Shotts constituency. This question follows up on Parliament's approval of a new deal for working people, which will see a pay rise for more than 200,000 workers in Scotland.

Answer from The Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Jonathan Reynolds)

More than 3 million workers are expected to receive a pay rise due to increases to the national minimum wage in April, protecting the lowest paid in society. After our changes to the remit, we accepted in full the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission which considers the impact of rates on business, competitiveness, the labour market, the wider economy and the cost of living. Our impact assessments are available only by region—estimates by constituency are not available—but the simple truth is that workers in every constituency are better off under this Labour Government.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Did not provide a specific assessment for Airdrie and Shotts, instead giving general information about the national impact.

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Q2 Luke Akehurst Lab North Durham
Employment
Context

The MP is interested in the number of families expected to benefit from the increase in wages.

Question

What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the national minimum wage and national living wage on families. The 6.7% increase in the national living wage will clearly show that this Labour Government are on the side of working people in North Durham and across the country, making work pay.

Answer from The Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Jonathan Reynolds)

Around 140,000 workers in north-east England will feel the benefits of this direct pay rise. I know his North Durham constituency well—I am no stranger to Chester-le-Street—and not only will his constituents get a pay rise, but his local shops, his restaurants, his pubs and more will get what they need most of all: customers who have got a bit of money to spend.

Answered
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Q3 John Lamont Con Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk
Economy Taxation
Context

The MP visited local shopkeepers in Kelso who employ their staff on the minimum wage and are facing difficulties due to recent policy changes.

Question

Last Friday, I spent the day visiting local shopkeepers in Kelso. Their biggest pressure just now is dealing with this Labour Government’s national insurance hike. They are facing a very difficult choice about whether they continue to employ people. What message from Minister to those hard-working local shopkeepers?

Answer from The Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Jonathan Reynolds)

The thing I would cite most of all to the hon. Member’s constituents is the doubling of the employment allowance in the Budget and the threshold being removed, which means that some smaller businesses will actually be paying lower national insurance contributions than they would have paid before the Budget.

Answered
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Q4 Robbie Moore Con Keighley and Ilkley
Economy Employment Business & Trade
Context

The MP is concerned about the collective economic impact of recent policies on local businesses in his constituency.

Question

Whether it be the increase in minimum wage, employer national insurance, business rates or changes to Employment Rights Bill, all these measures are negatively penalising many businesses across Keighley and Ilkley. As a result, redundancies are having to be made or prices increased. Did Government undertake any economic impact assessment of what all these measures collectively would have on hard-working businesses?

Answer from The Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Jonathan Reynolds)

As I have said to Conservative Members before, of course we are very sensitive to the aggregate impact of Government policy because frankly having observed the Conservative Governments of the previous 14 years I thought they completely missed this point and at many times had different Departments doing completely opposing things.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Did not provide specific details on an economic impact assessment, instead defending against accusations of inconsistency.

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