Speeches by Murray.

“One of my key priorities as Exchequer Secretary and the Minister with responsibility for HMRC is to oversee a programme of transformation at HMRC to improve its customer service, to digitise the service, to close the tax gap and to ensure that we have the modern, reformed service that we need for the future.”

“I will take that away.”

“There you go. Dan is quicker at looking up than I am.”

“We definitely have those numbers because I read them last night, but I want to make sure I get them right by getting them for you rather than trying to estimate them.”

“We have those stats here. I do not want to recite them. Dan can flick through our pack.”

“I take your point entirely. I was just clarifying that, for me, looking at the metrics, it is not simply about accepting what is being measured and changing the number associated with it. It is also about making sure we are measuring the right things.”

“Do you mean previously?”

“One thing that I have noticed about my approach to jobs I have had in the past is that—it has been in local government and city government—I am very focused on delivery and about how you make public sector organisations deliver against political priorities, whether that is in City Hall or a council before that. That fo…”

“I suppose it depends what you mean. Actual changes to the tax code have implications for the design of Making Tax Digital, because if you want to change the tax code you then have to change the MTD infrastructure and the IT architecture. The actual change itself can cause an impact on MTD in terms of developing the MTD…”

“Making sure that we have the right protection in terms of cyber‑security is absolutely crucial for the trust in the system that we mentioned earlier and, as you mentioned, Dame Siobhain, in terms of making sure that the basic service is there and that people can get that. One thing that the modernisation and reform sub…”

“I do not think that anyone in the world can put their hand on their heart and say that it will never happen. I can say that the efforts that we are making are to do everything possible to protect HMRC’s data and the system, to make sure people have trust in it. It is something that, as I say, I value very highly, with …”

“It is a key part of the spending conversations that we are having. It is not something that we will let slip, because we need to focus on that basic, foundational IT infrastructure.”

“I am sure you have read the Transforming Business Rates discussion paper. You have it there, excellent. You will see what the scope of our ambition is in terms of reforming business rates and making sure there is a new system that is fit for the 21st century. Now, as you say, there is obviously some stuff which we have…”

“Yes.”

“Yes, the consultation is happening right now. There was a deadline of people registering for the intense consultation process, if you like. That deadline was in November. That was where people who had a particular interest needed to let us know so that we can build them into a very structured process of engagement with…”

“It is in due course.”

“Certainly our ambition is to keep reforming the system over the course of this Parliament.”

“You are tempting me to give a very specific timetable here.”

“I do not want to prejudge the outcome of the consultation. Some of what we will say next in terms of our next steps will depend on the consultation. It is a meaningful consultation to talk to the business community about what would make the biggest impact for them in terms of what we set out and, indeed, see if they ha…”

“The fundamental principle of having a property tax for businesses is one that we will maintain. The idea is not to get rid of property‑based tax for businesses and have something entirely separate. That is actually a steer that businesses gave us directly.”