Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people have been prosecuted for crimes related to tax evasion in each year since 2010.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
| Positive Charging Decisions (PCD's) | Convictions | Acquittals |
2010/11* |
|
|
|
2011/12 | 501 | 401 | 31 |
2012/13 | 739 | 522 | 33 |
2013/14 | 880 | 682 | 40 |
2014/15 | 1254 | 623 | 64 |
2015/16 | 1067 | 774 | 70 |
2016/17 | 1067 | 768 | 77 |
*Lower level data on Positive Charging Decisions not held for 10-11, therefore unable to provide Tax Evasion figures for this year.
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many HM Revenue and Customs staff working in tax investigations have been employed in each year since 2010.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The number of staff employed in the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) Criminal Investigation Directorate each year since 2010 (as at 31st March) is as follows:
Financial Year | Staffing Numbers |
2009/10 | 1913 |
2010/11 | 1967 |
2011/12 | 2436 |
2012/13 | 2401 |
2013/14 | 2488 |
2014/15 | 2456 |
2015/16 | 2695 |
2016/17 | 4611 |
The figures provided include all resource, including managers, deployed both operationally and non-operationally within the Directorate.
From 1 April 2016 the HMRC Fraud Investigation Service (FIS) was formed from the merger of the Criminal Investigation and Specialist Investigation Directorates.
Since the creation of FIS from 1 April 2016, the focus and deployment of the previous specialist civil investigation and criminal investigation resource has been brought together in line with HMRC’s Serious Fraud Strategy. This means HMRC deploy the appropriate criminal and civil resource to their case work, which makes it difficult for 2016-17 to ring-fence resource deployment that is specifically on criminal investigation.
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many HM Revenue and Customs staff have been employed in each year since 2010.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The number of HM Revenue and Customs staff employed in each year since 2010 (as of 31 March each year) is set out in the table below.
31-Mar-10 | FTE | 70,700 |
Headcount | 78,057 | |
31-Mar-11 | FTE | 66,881 |
Headcount | 74,380 | |
31-Mar-12 | FTE | 66,373 |
Headcount | 74,886 | |
31-Mar-13 | FTE | 64,342 |
Headcount | 72,600 | |
31-Mar-14 | FTE | 60,918 |
Headcount | 68,851 | |
31-Mar-15 | FTE | 56,330 |
Headcount | 63,470 | |
31-Mar-16 | FTE | 58,621 |
Headcount | 65,402 | |
31-Mar-17 | FTE | 60,704 |
Headcount | 67,127 |
FTE – Full Time Equivalence
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the savings to the public purse which will accrue from changes in housing benefit for people under 21 years of age.
Answered by David Gauke
The Government is ending automatic entitlement to the housing element of Universal Credit – which is gradually replacing Housing Benefit - for out-of-work 18-21 years olds. This is forecast to save £100m over this Parliament.
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many full-time members of staff in his Department (a) were working on the Northern Powerhouse initiative before the EU referendum, (b) are currently working on the initiative and (c) are projected to work on the initiative in 2016-17.
Answered by David Gauke
Our ambitious plans to build a Northern Powerhouse remain a government priority. The Commercial Secretary to the Treasury and Minister for the Northern Powerhouse will lead the work across the whole of government to help make the North a powerhouse for the UK economy. This will build on the strong progress made over the last two years.
The Northern Powerhouse cuts across a range of policy areas within the Treasury, including devolution, local growth, transport, trade and investment, enterprise and innovation and skills and education. Officials from across these wider policy areas continue to be engaged on the Northern Powerhouse agenda.
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with waste operators on the effect of planned changes to the Landfill Communities Fund.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
The government has received representations from a number of waste operators on this issue. We are taking views into consideration and our priority is to ensure that the LCF operates effectively and encourages money to be spent in the communities that need it.
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect on waste operators of planned changes to the Landfill Communities Fund.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
The LCF is a tax credit scheme into which landfill operators contribute voluntarily. The impact of the changes to the LCF announced at Autumn Statement 2015 is set out in Reform and value of the Landfill Communities Fund. This document can be found here:
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent comparative assessment he has made of the rate of productivity in the UK and other G7 countries.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Development)
Output per hour grew 0.9 per cent in Q2 2015 and 0.5 per cent in Q3 but raising UK productivity is a long term challenge. The government published the productivity plan in July, created the National Infrastructure Commission in October and set out further measures in the Autumn Statement.
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 23 October 2015 to Question 12045, on tax credits, if he will publish that data in the form in which it is available.
Answered by David Gauke
HM Revenue and Customs is now able to provide the data in the format requested.
The table below shows the number of mandatory reconsiderations for tax credits undertaken by Synnex-Concentix UK Ltd since the start of the contract. The data is accurate as at 2 November 2015.
Within Week | Number |
One | 1,136 |
Two | 133 |
Three | 160 |
Four | 117 |
Five | 97 |
Six | 94 |
Seven | 89 |
Eight | 70 |
Nine | 44 |
Ten | 38 |
More than ten | 106 |
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many independent tribunals have been brought to challenge mandatory reconsiderations of tax credits by Concentrix in each month since that company has been under contract with his Department.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
The following table outlines the number of applications HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) received from HM Court and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) as a result of a mandatory reconsideration decision made by Concentrix.
Month | Number of applications HMRC received from HMCTS following a mandatory reconsideration decision made by Concentrix |
March 2015 | 3 |
April 2015 | 1 |
May 2015 | 6 |
June 2015 | 5 |
July 2015 | 3 |
August 2015 | 3 |
September 2015 | 19 |
Prior to March 2015 HMRC did not receive any applications from HMCTS challenging a mandatory reconsideration decision made by Concentrix.