Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 7 November 2017 to Question 110432, on tax evasion, how many staff were employed in the (a) High Net Worth Unit and (b) Affluent Unit in the month proceeding the merger.

As at 31^st March 2017, the teams had approximately 1040 full time equivalent staff engaged in customer compliance activity, of which roughly 522 were employed in the High Net Worth Unit and 518 in the Affluent Unit.

Their roles focus on promoting tax compliance and tackling non-compliance amongst the wealthy population, including, where evidence is found, investigating potential tax evasion. The team works closely with Counter Avoidance and the Fraud Investigation Service to ensure HMRC effectively tackle avoidance and evasion within this customer segment. Customer compliance activity as a whole forms the largest part of HMRC by staff numbers.