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.

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.