Asked by: Lloyd Hatton (Labour - South Dorset)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Treasury plans to introduce additional protections for individuals who face retaliation as a result of engaging with the HMRC whistleblowing reward scheme; and whether HMRC will be required to provide support to whistleblowers involved in employment disputes or SLAPP-type legal proceedings arising from their disclosures.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC treats all informants with the highest levels of confidentiality and security in line with the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000 and the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) Codes of Practice.
There is no legal obligation on HMRC to participate in an employment tribunal of an informant. However, if requested, HMRC can provide a disclosure to the informant or their legal representative to support any employment tribunal under Sec 18 (2)(c) Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005.
Asked by: Lloyd Hatton (Labour - South Dorset)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department will take to ensure transparency in the operation of HMRC's proposed whistleblowing reward scheme; and whether she plans to publish (a) eligibility criteria and award thresholds for applicants, and (b) data on the number and value of awards granted.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
At Autumn Budget on 26 November 2025 the Government launched the Rewards for informants of high value tax fraud. This scheme is designed to target serious non-compliance involving large corporates, wealthy individuals, offshore and avoidance schemes. Informants can receive a reward of between 15 and 30% when they provide information which leads directly to HMRC collecting more than £1.5M tax. HMRC have published eligibility criteria for the scheme at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/reporting-serious-tax-avoidance-and-evasion.
HMRC has previously published data on the total amount of rewards paid annually through the standard informants reward scheme and will continue to do so. To protect the confidentiality of informants we do not publish the number of rewards or size of individual rewards.
Asked by: Lloyd Hatton (Labour - South Dorset)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many of the 74 HMRC engagement forums are involved in developing tax policy; and what is the composition of those stakeholder groups, including the proportion of tax practitioners compared to academics or independent experts.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The majority of HMRC’s engagement forums play a role in contributing to the development of tax policy, as well as addressing other key areas such as operations, compliance and communications. These forums bring together a diverse mix of representatives from professional bodies, other representative organisations, tax practitioners and independent experts.
Asked by: Lloyd Hatton (Labour - South Dorset)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many (a) land and (b) property assets are held through UK trusts registered with the Trust Registration Services; and what the aggregate value is of (i) land and (ii) property assets held via trusts.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
I can only provide a partial answer to these questions, as the information held on the Trust Registration Service in relation to land and property holdings varies depending on the category of registration. Additionally, the Trust Registration Service does not record information on indirect holdings of land by trustees.
From May 2021 (when the Trust Registration Service was expanded to accept registrations from non-taxable trusts) to 5 April 2024 (the end of the last tax year), c.56,000 trusts notified the Trust Registration Service that the trustees have acquired a direct interest in UK land or property on or after 6 October 2020. Of this figure, c.55,000 are UK resident trusts (including trusts categorised as ‘Type A') and c.1000 are non-UK resident trusts (including trusts categorised as ‘Type B’ or ‘Type C’).
Taxable trusts, including those registered before May 2021, are required to provide a statement of assets held at the time of registration, including UK land or property. However, analysing this information to arrive at a total number and value of land and property assets held by these trusts would carry a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lloyd Hatton (Labour - South Dorset)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many trusts registered with the Trusts Registration Service hold UK land or property via a type (a) A, (b) B and (c) C trust.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
I can only provide a partial answer to these questions, as the information held on the Trust Registration Service in relation to land and property holdings varies depending on the category of registration. Additionally, the Trust Registration Service does not record information on indirect holdings of land by trustees.
From May 2021 (when the Trust Registration Service was expanded to accept registrations from non-taxable trusts) to 5 April 2024 (the end of the last tax year), c.56,000 trusts notified the Trust Registration Service that the trustees have acquired a direct interest in UK land or property on or after 6 October 2020. Of this figure, c.55,000 are UK resident trusts (including trusts categorised as ‘Type A') and c.1000 are non-UK resident trusts (including trusts categorised as ‘Type B’ or ‘Type C’).
Taxable trusts, including those registered before May 2021, are required to provide a statement of assets held at the time of registration, including UK land or property. However, analysing this information to arrive at a total number and value of land and property assets held by these trusts would carry a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lloyd Hatton (Labour - South Dorset)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many of the trusts registered with the Trusts Registration Service hold UK land or property.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
I can only provide a partial answer to these questions, as the information held on the Trust Registration Service in relation to land and property holdings varies depending on the category of registration. Additionally, the Trust Registration Service does not record information on indirect holdings of land by trustees.
From May 2021 (when the Trust Registration Service was expanded to accept registrations from non-taxable trusts) to 5 April 2024 (the end of the last tax year), c.56,000 trusts notified the Trust Registration Service that the trustees have acquired a direct interest in UK land or property on or after 6 October 2020. Of this figure, c.55,000 are UK resident trusts (including trusts categorised as ‘Type A') and c.1000 are non-UK resident trusts (including trusts categorised as ‘Type B’ or ‘Type C’).
Taxable trusts, including those registered before May 2021, are required to provide a statement of assets held at the time of registration, including UK land or property. However, analysing this information to arrive at a total number and value of land and property assets held by these trusts would carry a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lloyd Hatton (Labour - South Dorset)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to HMRC's document entitled Measuring tax gaps 2024 edition: tax gap estimates for 2022 to 2023, updated on 20 June 2024, if she will take steps to widen the scope of the published offshore tax gap statistics.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is assessing the feasibility of extending the published estimate of the tax gap arising from undisclosed foreign income, including engaging with academics.
HMRC is determined to address offshore tax non-compliance. At Autumn Budget 2024, the government published a supplementary document outlining HMRC’s approach to addressing offshore tax non-compliance, as part of the government’s wider efforts to close the tax gap: Tackling offshore tax non-compliance - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Lloyd Hatton (Labour - South Dorset)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people work in the large business directorate in HMRC.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
As of 31 March 2024, HMRC’s Large Business Directorate had a total of 2422 full time equivalent staff working within the directorate which includes 169 Customer Compliance Managers.
Asked by: Lloyd Hatton (Labour - South Dorset)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many customer compliance managers there are in the HMRC large business directorate.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
As of 31 March 2024, HMRC’s Large Business Directorate had a total of 2422 full time equivalent staff working within the directorate which includes 169 Customer Compliance Managers.
Asked by: Lloyd Hatton (Labour - South Dorset)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether professional body supervisors will share risk assessments of Trusts and Corporate Service Providers with Companies House for (a) assessing and (b) granting authorised Corporate Service Provider status, in the context of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Regulations 2017 require Professional Body Supervisors (PBSs) to identify and assess the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing in their supervised populations.
An integrated reporting mechanism established by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA) provides the basis for PBSs and Companies House to exchange relevant information, including risk assessments for use in their review of Authorised Corporate Service Provider (‘ACSP’) applications.
In 2024 the Treasury consulted on amendments to the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Regulations to further improve the information sharing and cooperation mechanisms between Companies House and Professional Body Supervisors.