Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) desks, and (2) civil servants, are assigned to the Department of Health and Social Care office at 39 Victoria Street.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department has 2,114 civil servants assigned to 39 Victoria Street. 39 Victoria Street has 882 desks.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) desks, and (2) civil servants, are assigned to the Cabinet Office at 70 Whitehall, London.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Captain of the King's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard (HM Household) (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Lords)

It has been the practice of this and successive governments not to comment, on grounds of both national security and staff safety, on the physical capacity or staffing numbers for individual buildings of the government estate.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many (2) desks, and (2) civil servants are assigned to the Department for Education office in the Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street, London.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

There are 1,023 desks and a range of shared working spaces available in Sanctuary Buildings. The number of civil servants from the Department for Education assigned to this office is 2,176.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) desks, and (2) civil servants, are assigned to the Department for Transport office at 33 Horseferry Road.

Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

As of 30th June 2026, there are: 1) 1,261 desks; and, 2) 2,180 civil servants assigned to the Department for Transport office at 33 Horseferry Road.

Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) desks, and (2) civil servants, are assigned to the Department for Business and Trade office in the Old Admiralty Building.

Answered by Lord Leong - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)

The Department for Business and Trade has 1058 desks located within the Old Admiralty Building.

As of the end of June 2026 there are 3,699 civil servants assigned to the Old Admiralty Building.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of increasing the HMRC late-payment interest rate from Bank Rate plus 2.5% to Bank Rate plus 4% from 6 April 2025 in reducing the incidence of late payment of tax; and whether they will publish any analysis or evidence underpinning that assessment.

Answered by Lord Livermore

As announced at the Budget in 2024, HMRC amended legislation to increase the late payment interest rate by 1.5 percentage points (ppts). This changed interest rates from Bank of England base rate + 2.5 ppts to base rate + 4 ppts.

This change took effect as HMRC’s current interest was low when compared to commercially available short-term borrowing. This creates unfairness between those who pay on time and those who choose not to, using HMRC as a form of cheap lending.

The measure aimed to address this by bringing HMRC’s rates closer to those commercially available. The late payment interest rate increase was made to encourage taxpayers to pay on time, help raise vital revenue for public services, and ensure fairness for those who pay on time.

These changes took effect from 6 April 2025 and are applied where interest is charged to existing and new tax debts owed to HMRC.

This measure encourages people to pay the outstanding tax they owe, increasing incentives to engage with HMRC and make payment arrangements, as well as complying to avoid late payment penalties.

There is no proposal to publish any analysis or evidence as HMRC continues to keep its interest rates under review.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what revenue HMRC has received from late payment interest in each of the past five financial years, broken down by tax head; and, for each tax head, what proportion that revenue represented of total receipts in the corresponding year

Answered by Lord Livermore

HM Revenue and Customs does not hold a central dataset that identifies how many instances of Late Payment Interest (LPI) have been charged for all tax heads.

For some tax heads, such as Income Tax Self Assessment, it would be possible to produce such figures, but due to the disproportionate cost to the taxpayer, it is not possible to answer this question. This cost represents the time it would take an analyst to extract, combine, analyse and quality assure the data.

For other tax heads, even with additional time and resource, it would not be possible to isolate how many instances of LPI have been charged, due to the way that data is stored for those tax heads.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many instances of late payment interest were charged by HMRC in each of the past five financial years, broken down by tax head; and what the year-on-year change in the number of such instances was for each tax head.

Answered by Lord Livermore

HM Revenue and Customs does not hold a central dataset that identifies how many instances of Late Payment Interest (LPI) have been charged for all tax heads.

For some tax heads, such as Income Tax Self Assessment, it would be possible to produce such figures, but due to the disproportionate cost to the taxpayer, it is not possible to answer this question. This cost represents the time it would take an analyst to extract, combine, analyse and quality assure the data.

For other tax heads, even with additional time and resource, it would not be possible to isolate how many instances of LPI have been charged, due to the way that data is stored for those tax heads.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which late-payment interest on Corporation Tax arises (1) from differences between estimated and final tax liabilities, including in businesses with complex or evolving tax positions such as those undertaking significant investment or research and development activity, or (2) from late payment behaviour; and what steps they are taking to ensure that the application of such interest does not have disproportionate impacts on particular types of business.

Answered by Lord Livermore

HMRC does not routinely collect or publish data on the extent to which Corporation Tax late-payment interest arises from differences between estimated and final tax liabilities, as opposed to late payment behaviour. No specific assessment has therefore been made of the relative contribution of these factors.

Interest on tax paid late is not a penalty but rather designed to both compensate the Exchequer for late payment and to provide a measure of fairness to those taxpayers that pay what is due on time.

The Government recognises that some businesses may face greater uncertainty when estimating their final Corporation Tax liability. The Corporation Tax regime has nevertheless operated successfully for many years using broadly consistent interest rules.

HMRC keeps all aspects of the tax administration framework under review. In doing so, it is mindful of the need to avoid unnecessary complexity and to ensure that rules work effectively across the wide range of businesses that make up the Corporation Tax population. HMRC has not identified evidence that introducing different late-payment interest regimes for particular sectors, activities or business types would improve fairness or deliver better overall outcomes. The Government therefore continues to apply a broadly consistent approach across taxpayers while keeping the operation of the regime under review.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) desks, and (2) civil servants, are assigned to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero office in 55 Whitehall.

Answered by Lord Whitehead

On 30 June 2026, 55 Whitehall and 3-8 Whitehall Place had 1104 desk work settings, and 2970 active civil servants as their contracted office location.

55 Whitehall and 3-8 Whitehall Place are two adjacent conjoined buildings that provide the main London office space for the Department.

Question

To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) desks, and (2) civil servants, are assigned to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport office in 100 Parliament Street.

Answered by Baroness Twycross - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

As at 1 July 2026, DCMS has 380 desks with 752 staff members based in London. A 5:10 desk ratio is in line with government standards.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) desks, and (2) civil servants, are assigned to the Department for Work and Pensions office at Caxton House.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Below is the Department’s headcount and desks figure for DWP Caxton House London as of 30^th June 2026

Caxton House currently has 2,245 DWP colleagues and 1,395 desks.

This number of desks does not include alternative space where colleagues may work from through the day, including meeting rooms, collaboration areas, or privacy booths.

Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) desks, and (2) civil servants, are assigned to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology office at 22–26 Whitehall.

Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)

22-26 Whitehall has 825 desk work settings. The site is used by multiple Government departments, and official figures have not yet been updated following the creation of the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade.

On 30 June 2026, 22-26 Whitehall had 998 active DSIT civil servants as their contracted office location.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) desks, and (2) civil servants, are assigned to the offices of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office at King Charles Street.

Answered by Lord Wood of Anfield - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

I am advised by the Department that, based on the most recent occupancy and space-planning data available, there are 3,206 desks within the King Charles Street building.

Desk numbers are kept under regular review and may increase or decrease over time to reflect operational requirements, estate reconfiguration, and changing business needs. As such, the figure provided represents the most accurate position at the time of the latest assessment rather than a permanent fixed total.

In terms of headcount, the number of civil servants assigned to the offices of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office at King Charles Street is 4,129.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government to ask His Majesty’s Government how many (1) desks, and (2) civil servants, are assigned to the HM Revenue and Customs office at 1 Horse Guards Road.

Answered by Lord Pitt-Watson - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

HMRC does not have any desks or civil servants assigned to 1 Horse Guards Road.