Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish the criteria used to determine the circumstances in which (a) self-certification and (b) a statement from an accountant are considered a reliable means of certifying a business or an individual’s statement of income.

The context for when and whether to use self-certification in a scheme design is important.

In relation to Self-Assessment HMRC have built up systems and processes over many years that mitigate the risks of fraud and error in Self-Assessment returns. This information has been used to identify those eligible for the SEISS, and thus eligibility for the scheme is not based on self-certification. The same is true for the CJRS.

Through the SEISS the Government has been able to support millions of self-employed people rapidly and effectively. The Government has based the populations eligible for CJRS and SEISS on data that it already holds and that can be quickly and easily verified at large scale.

Without these precautions, the support schemes would be at risk of delay, unmanageable operational overload through the need for manual processing, significant error and fraudulent attacks.

More widely, it is appropriate that the tax system make some qualified use of self-certification. For example, under the SEISS, self-certification helps to target support within the population identified through Self-Assessment returns better; it is not used to determine eligibility in the first place.