Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce waiting times for taxpayers seeking to access HMRC’s telephone helpline.

We encourage these taxpayers who can contact us digitally to do, so that our staff can focus their support on those who need one-to-one support on the telephone.

The quickest and easiest way for customers to manage their tax affairs and get answers to queries is online through the HMRC mobile app or the web-based Personal Tax Account here https://www.gov.uk/personal-tax-account, which enables taxpayers to view all their tax affairs in one place and complete everyday tasks. We continue to invest in high quality digital services which will allow HMRC to offer a more efficient service. When more customers use our online services, this frees up our advisers to offer a better service for those customers who have more complex queries or are unable to go online.

January is the busiest time of the year on HMRC’s telephony lines due to the Self-Assessment peak. To ensure that Self-Assessment customers can get the help they need during this period, HMRC has redeployed 850 colleagues from other areas to enable us to focus on the highest priority Self-Assessment calls.