Speeches by Murray.

“I will speak to what I can say and I might ask Dan to come in because some of this was under the previous Administration. That decision that Ministers at the time oversaw to close the helpline then led to an urgent question being tabled by someone not a million miles from here. The decision was then reversed, which, as…”

“This is where I am going to bring Dan in, because I was not there.”

“In terms of customer service, there is a big role for AI to play and some of this relies on us modernising the IT infrastructure that HMRC has. One good opportunity that we could look at in the future is around, for instance, call summarisation, so having AI to give call summaries so that, when people call up and have …”

“It is one benefit of Making Tax Digital. If you look at the next milestone that we are heading to with MTD, which is for self‑assessment in April 2026 for income tax for small businesses, landlords and so on, that is really important in terms of not just helping people to serve themselves online and interact with HMRC,…”

“It is a really important part for me. As we have spoken about today, closing the tax gap is one of my three priorities. The April 2026 and April 2027 mandates for MTD have additional tax revenue associated with them because they are measures that will increase the tax collection.”

“Making sure people are paying the tax that they owe and discouraging and preventing fraud is a crucial part of not just Making Tax Digital but the wider agenda. One of the processes that I have been through over the last six months, in terms of talking with the people responsible for the Making Tax Digital programme, i…”

“The commitment we have from Sage is to launch the free product ahead of the April 2026 mandation.”

“It is £50,000 and then £30,000. There are two stages, yes.”

“The cost of software is relevant to the point we were just talking to around free software being available. One reason why we have chosen to start with a £50,000 mandate, then to go to £30,000, and not to set a date right now for £20,000 but to see where we are, is exactly so we can learn as we go along from this, as w…”

“Shall I discuss it with HMRC and come back to you on that? I do not want to get any stats wrong on that.”

“My questions over that are why, when we came into office, I did not immediately say, “Yes, we are behind this April 2026 deadline”, because I wanted to interrogate it myself before I was happy to stand behind it. A lot of the work that I have been doing with the people directly delivering the programme and overseeing i…”

“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.”

“That is a conversation we are going to have to have with HMRC. I can definitely discuss it and write to you about that.”