Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the amount spent by Government on tackling tax evasion in each of the last three financial years.

The Government is committed to tackling tax avoidance, evasion, and all other forms of tax non-compliance. Our tax gap is on a long-term downward trend and is among the lowest worldwide, falling from 7.5 per cent in 2005-06 to 5.3 per cent in 2019-20.

HMRC has considerable resources to tackle non-compliance in the tax system, including tax evasion. As set out in HMRC’s Annual Report and Accounts, in the last three financial years HMRC’s Customer Compliance Group has spent £3.5 billion on tackling avoidance, evasion, and other forms of non-compliance, including £1.1 billion in 2018-19, £1.2 billion in 2019-20, and £1.2 billion in 2020-21.