Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many Research and Development tax advisers His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has referred to a professional regulatory or disciplinary body in each of the past five years; and under what statutory authority HMRC is empowered to refer or sanction such advisers.

HMRC can disclose the misconduct of a tax advisor to any professional regulatory body they are a member of, under section 20(3) of the Commissioners of Revenue and Customs Act 2005.

The table below provides the total number of disclosures made to professional regulatory bodies between 2019-2020 and 2023-2024. The table refers to the total number of referrals and HMRC does not publish relief specific breakdowns of disclosures it makes to professional regulatory bodies.

The government has recently consulted on options to enhance HMRC’s powers to tackle poor tax adviser behaviour, which includes Research & Development agents. This consultation closed on 7 May 2025. It is the government’s intention that any legislative changes following the consultation will be included in the 2025 Finance Bill.