The increases in NICs rates were supposed to raise £2bn by 2022.

In his letter to MPs the Chancellor said the the cost of the changes announced today will be "funded by measures to be announced in the Autumn Budget".

Image source, Reuters

Mr Hammond said that ahead of last year's Autumn Statement he and the Prime Minister had decided to honour the tax-lock and spending ring-fence commitments made in the manifesto.

However, he said it was made clear the tax lock commitment on National Insurance contributions only applied to employers and employees.  

"The measure proposed in the Budget fall within the constraints set out by the tax-lock legislation and the spending ring-fences," he added. 

"However , in light of the debate over the last few days it is clear that compliance with the legislative test of the manifesto commitment is not adequate."

In a letter to MPs the Chancellor Philip Hammond laid out why he had axed of the NICs increase.

He said the increase had been proposed because the gap between the benefits available to the self-employed and those in employment had closed over the last few years, and so it was no longer justifiable that self- employed people should pay so much less in NICS than employees.

However, he said the tax increase didn't meet with the spirit of tax-lock commitments made in the 2015 manifesto.

"It is very important both to me and to the Prime Minister that we are compliant not just with the letter, but also the spirit, of the commitments that were made," he wrote. 

Plans to increase National Insurance levels for self-employed people - announced in the Budget last week - have been dropped.  

Chancellor Philip Hammond came under intense pressure last week when he announced in his Budget that National Insurance (NI) bills would rise for the self-employed.

In a bid to contain the backlash, Theresa May said MPs wouldn't vote on the plans until the Autumn.

Now the chancellor is due to make an emergency statement in the Commons this afternoon about the issue. 

Image source, AFP

There's no shortage of obscure job titles out there. Job and recruitment site Glassdoor has put together the weirdest it's come across in the UK.

Our favourites include 'customer happiness hero' - essentially someone in a customer service role - and 'air cartographer' - a person who creates flight plans for the RAF.

The prize for "Most disappointing job title when you discover what it actually is" goes to 'calypso developer'. 

No, it's not someone who comes up with dance moves. Calypso is a provider of tech solutions for complex financial markets. So a Calypso developer has knowledge of how that tech works.

Image source, Getty Images

Markets think it's a dead cert the Federal Reserve will raise US interest rates this evening - only the third increase since the financial crisis.

Among those who stand to potentially gain are firms on the FTSE 100 which have exposure to the US, according to Neil Wilson at ETX Capital.

That's partly because of the positivity - higher rates signalling stronger US growth, he tells the BBC. 

"There is the clear advantage for UK firms with heavy US exposure – Ashtead for example. 

"We also have banks and insurers – like Prudential – who are likely to benefit from rising global interest rates." 

And separate to the Fed but still US this week – Trump budget plans due tomorrow – which could help defence stocks and pharma, he adds.

The FTSE 100 is currently 0.1% higher at 7,368 points.

Slightly depressingly, it looks like we're working more hours, but wages aren't keeping up. 

Employees in the UK worked 1.03 billion hours per week for the 3 months to January 2017, according to the ONS. This was 15 million more than for the previous three months. 

The ONS says this reflects a rise in both the number of people in work and the average hours worked.

At the same time, pay growth slowed to 2.2% in the period. Once inflation is stripped out, the growth was just 0.7%, the ONS says.

Joe Miller
Europe business reporter, Frankfurt

Image source, Reuters

A bit more from Axel Weber, the chairman of UBS, at the IIF conference in Frankfurt.

He says Brexit might be manageable, but what keeps him awake at night is the prospect of the Eurozone breaking up. 

"Having a country leave the EU is not an easily manageable process if it is manageable at all," Mr Weber says.

He does add that he doesn't think a Eurozone collapse will happen.

An extra 110,000 workers were on zero-hours contracts in the past year, according to ONS data. 

However, that growth has started to flatline - as the chart below shows.

Sports Direct, DIY chain Homebase and pub operator JD Wetherspoon are among the firms to move staff off zero-hours contracts in recent months. 

Image source, ONS

Image source, Getty Images

The jobs figures showed, external that the number of people working on zero-hours contracts increased by 13% to 905,000 over the past year. 

The TUC says those workers earn a third less than average workers.

The organisation also reckons the increase in zero-hours working is costing the Treasury £1.9bn a year because the staff pay less tax and national insurance and are more dependent on tax credits.

Joe Miller
Europe Business reporter, Frankfurt

Image source, Reuters

The chairman of UBS has said the Swiss bank will not wait until the end of the Brexit process to move some of its staff from London.

Speaking at the IIF conference in Frankfurt, Axel Weber said up to 1,500 employees would be relocated to a "country that will be a long term EU member".

He hinted the move could begin soon after Article 50 is triggered. "We need an EU member state operation and we can't do that from Zurich"

UBS has some 5,500 employees in London. The company confirmed in January that it was considering moving those involved in passporting business.

But Mr Weber added that he thought New York, rather than another EU city, would be the main beneficiary of Brexit.

Image source, Getty Images

A quick check back on the pound now, and, while it's still ahead on the day, it's fallen back from its highs just before the jobs figures were released.

Analysts said sterling might also have been affected by Brexit secretary David Davis' appearance before MPs. Mr Davis admitted the government hasn't yet done an economic assessment of leaving the European Union without a trade deal. 

A short while ago the pound was at $1.2197 - that's a rise of 0.34%. Against the euro it was at 1.1497 euros, a rise of 0.36% 

ONS senior statistician David Freeman picks up on the mixed picture from today's UK job figures - which shows the UK is creating more jobs, but that workers' wage growth isn't keeping up.