Speeches by Murray.

“I do not want to pre-empt the consultation being published, but there is work ongoing on that and the consultation will set out the options.”

“We are still considering the medium and long-term approach to the tax advice market. The first thing that we need to do, which we have committed to doing and I think is a good first step, is to make sure there is a mandatory registration of tax advisers who interact with HMRC. That is very much a floor in terms of what…”

“Any practitioner who engages with HMRC will have to be registered. It will be mandatory for anyone engaging with HMRC.”

“Thanks very much for that question. The decision about employer’s national insurance contributions in the Budget is one of the toughest decisions that we took as a Government. We recognised that there would be consequences of it, but it is crucial to underline why we took that decision. We knew that, if we did not fix …”

“They will not be able to interact with HMRC without having that registration, yes.”

“It is a really important point. It is not sharing any secrets to say that customer service has not been at the place that it should be. The customer service metrics recently have ticked up. I am not claiming credit for that, but HMRC has managed to improve some of the metrics around answering the phones recently. There…”

“Next time you summon me, I will ask that question again and I hope we will see a metric of improvement on that.”

“The £6.5 billion that we committed to at the Budget is additional tax revenue, so that assumes a compliance yield underneath that. Some of the work that HMRC has to do is just to keep up with expectations about the base compliance yield. That would obviously take into consideration changes in taxpayer population and so…”

“The Chancellor has been clear that the fiscal rules are non-negotiable, so the fiscal rules will be met. My job is to make sure we are implementing the commitments the Chancellor has already made at the autumn Budget and that we deliver them. That goes partly to my point around why I am so keen to be hands-on with deli…”

“With any organisation, and I have found this in roles before, there is a rate question as well as a destination question, if you like.”

“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…”

“Part of the programme ahead of the April 2026 introduction of the £50,000 threshold is to focus on what support businesses need to get ready for it. That will take consideration of some businesses and some individual taxpayers doing it without much difficulty and others requiring more support, help or guidance to make …”

“Sorry, can I just say, on that point around the metrics, that that was not exactly what I said? We will be looking at what metrics are appropriate. If we are going to be a digital-first organisation, we should consider metrics in that context.”

“You asked about pensioners, so I am responding to your question. There will be different people who feel comfortable with different things. It depends on how complicated people’s tax affairs are. Some of this comes round to, as I said earlier, the worried well and the element of reassurance to see whether we can get to…”

“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.”