Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Government’s objective of delivering “the biggest wave of insourcing for a generation”, which specific previous wave of insourcing the Government is using as a comparator, and what assessment it has made of the timing and scale of that wave.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government’s policy of delivering the highest wave of insourcing in a generation reflects a clear commitment in Labour’s ‘Make Work Pay’ agenda and will see an end to the previous administration’s policy of outsourcing by default.
Central to this is the introduction of a Public Insourcing Test, as announced on 26 March, which will see all Government departments assess if services can be better delivered in-house. Alongside this, departments will produce and publish robust insourcing strategies.
Detailed guidance will be published in the updated Sourcing Playbook this summer, and my officials have been engaging across Government to ensure the implementation of both the Public Interest Test and insourcing strategies can commence rapidly.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, hat are the staffing projection figures, given in full-time equivalent supply numbers before any rebalance, in HMRC Customer Service Group for the following directorates, (a) Benefits, Family and Customs, including Contingent Labour (CL) (Benefits, Family & Customs), (b) Debt Management, (c) Personal Tax (including Contingent Labour & Managed Service Provider), (d) Operational Excellence, (e) Strategy and Change, (f) Finance, Planning and Performance, (g) Operational Delivery Profession, (h) Customer Experience Directorate and (i) Surge Rapid Response Team used in Customer Services Group.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Improving day-to-day performance and the customer experience is a key priority for HMRC.
HMRC expects to continue to use a range of resourcing models, alongside the use of MSPs, to meet variable customer demand.
HMRC is currently in an initial approximately 18 month ‘proof of value’ phase for its use of MSPs and has no plans to publish full staffing projections for MSPs or customer services staff at this stage. Future workforce decisions will be informed by the outcome of this phase and taken in line with normal business planning and Spending Review processes.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what is the HMRC Personal Tax (PT) Directorate workforce distribution projection, including Managed Service Provider provision for (a) Total Personal Tax Paid Supply, (b) Permanent Supply, (c) Contingent Labour, (d) Surge, (e) Flex Moves, (f) Managed Service Provider, (g) Personal Tax Effective Supply, (h) Recruitment and (i) Speed to Competency for new recruits in each month from April 2026 to March 2027 inclusive.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Improving day-to-day performance and the customer experience is a key priority for HMRC.
HMRC expects to continue to use a range of resourcing models, alongside the use of MSPs, to meet variable customer demand.
HMRC is currently in an initial approximately 18 month ‘proof of value’ phase for its use of MSPs and has no plans to publish full staffing projections for MSPs or customer services staff at this stage. Future workforce decisions will be informed by the outcome of this phase and taken in line with normal business planning and Spending Review processes.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what are the HMRC Customer Service Group outputs – Baseline Plan, as of 12 February 2026, for each month from April 2026 to March 2027 for the Customer Service Group, excluding Debt Management, for (a) FTE Total (Paid Supply, including Contingent Labour & Surge and (b) Managed Service Provider Total.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Improving day-to-day performance and the customer experience is a key priority for HMRC.
HMRC expects to continue to use a range of resourcing models, alongside the use of MSPs, to meet variable customer demand.
HMRC is currently in an initial approximately 18 month ‘proof of value’ phase for its use of MSPs and has no plans to publish full staffing projections for MSPs or customer services staff at this stage. Future workforce decisions will be informed by the outcome of this phase and taken in line with normal business planning and Spending Review processes.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment HMRC has made of the net staffing impact of the Managed Service Provider, taking account of both Managed Service Provider recruitment and HMRC staffing levels.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Improving day-to-day performance and the customer experience is a key priority for HMRC.
HMRC expects to continue to use a range of resourcing models, alongside the use of MSPs, to meet variable customer demand.
HMRC is currently in an initial approximately 18 month ‘proof of value’ phase for its use of MSPs and has no plans to publish full staffing projections for MSPs or customer services staff at this stage. Future workforce decisions will be informed by the outcome of this phase and taken in line with normal business planning and Spending Review processes.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate her Department has made of the number of betting and gaming customers required to submit financial documents under Financial Risk Assessments; and what assessment she has made of the potential impact of those assessments on customer experience.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government remains committed to supporting the implementation of key measures in the 2023 white paper, including the introduction of Financial Risk Assessments (FRAs), which are not currently in place.
The white paper recognised the “chilling effect” that asking customers for bank documents can have. This is why it set out an alternative approach to assessing financial risk which would be much more frictionless.
The white paper proposed less than 3% of customer accounts would undergo an assessment – targeting the highest spending accounts. The Gambling Commission’s pilot showed that of these 3%, 97% would have a frictionless assessment process. Those customers would not be required to take any actions, including providing documents. Operators would only be unable to conduct an assessment in a frictionless way for 1 customer in every 1,000 accounts, significantly better than anticipated in the white paper. As the independent regulator, the Gambling Commission will decide how to implement FRAs based on the best available evidence.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how she will ensure Financial Risk Assessments are carried out in a frictionless manner as stated in the Gambling Act Review White Paper.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government remains committed to supporting the implementation of key measures in the 2023 white paper, including the introduction of Financial Risk Assessments (FRAs), which are not currently in place.
The white paper recognised the “chilling effect” that asking customers for bank documents can have. This is why it set out an alternative approach to assessing financial risk which would be much more frictionless.
The white paper proposed less than 3% of customer accounts would undergo an assessment – targeting the highest spending accounts. The Gambling Commission’s pilot showed that of these 3%, 97% would have a frictionless assessment process. Those customers would not be required to take any actions, including providing documents. Operators would only be unable to conduct an assessment in a frictionless way for 1 customer in every 1,000 accounts, significantly better than anticipated in the white paper. As the independent regulator, the Gambling Commission will decide how to implement FRAs based on the best available evidence.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the (a) consultation responses and (b) feedback from impacted people on proposed changes to the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme are taken into account.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
On 30 October, the Government launched a public consultation on proposed changes to the infected blood compensation scheme. The core purpose of this consultation was to gather views on how the Government intends to implement the Infected Blood Inquiry’s recommendations, and responses from the infected blood community were particularly encouraged.
Every response to this consultation is being considered carefully and with the seriousness the issue deserves. The consultation closed on 22 January, and the Government will publish its response within 12 weeks of this closing date.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment she has made of the potential effect of the cost profile of (a) rail and (b) road freight operations on modal shift.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department does not hold data on relative changes to operating costs between road and rail freight. As part of continued support for the rail freight sector, the Department has operated the Mode Shift Revenue Support scheme since 2010. Network Rail also offers the Access Charges Discount Policy to stimulate growth, supporting new to rail traffic.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will list the total funding received to date by each freight transport company in the infrastructure development phase of the Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator (ZEHID) programme.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator (ZEHID) R&D programme has provided £58 million to date to 18 UK freight transport companies across different project consortia to support the purchase and demonstration of the heaviest zero emission HGVs, and associated infrastructure.