Speeches by Glen.

“ I really do not understand what difference this makes. If you are operationally independent, and the Minister chairing the Board has no discretion over your day-to-day activities and cannot obtain any more information, what additional value does it bring the Government other than a superficial presentational one?”

“ I am sorry, I do not want to labour the point, but I sat next to the Financial Secretary when the Financial Secretary was responsible for HMRC, and I saw you coming in a number of times, quite routinely, so I do not really understand. I have the greatest of respect, genuinely, for James Murray, but I do not under…”

“ Previous Ministers would have had a very similar conversation about similar priorities, but in a slightly different way and not formalised in this way.”

“ Could we turn to AI and machine learning? Could you set out for the Committee what role you see that as playing in HMRC and how it facilitates, presumably, additional tax being obtained through those methods?”

“ To play that back to you, AI is essentially a tool for increasing the efficiency of the way your staff work, rather than a customer-facing mechanism or product.”

“ So you do not have any cross-referencing with the Rural Payments Agency and its interactions with the estate? One view could be that if an entity is registered with the Rural Payments Agency, it might constitute a farming enterprise, but you do not have any need for that information and you do not make any interr…”

“ How do we account for this discussion about working farms? From your perspective, there is no actual definition of a working farm.”

“ Would you be able to quantify the value of AI in terms of reconditioning processes and saving time, or indeed in terms of the additional tax that you might be able to raise as a consequence of the greater productivity of your staff?”

“ As Chief Secretary, I found that AI was used in a ubiquitous fashion in all Ministries, basically to justify investment to make things more efficient, but what about the quantification of the net effect of AI? I recognise from the use cases that you described, Sir Jim, that there is a meaningful chance that that …”

“ I see. I will ask one more question, to Ms Lloyd, around the customer service side of things. There is typically a degree of apprehensiveness when people encounter HMRC. Sometimes, that is totally without foundation. How do you see AI enhancing the experience of customers with respect to their interactions with y…”

“ I have a final question. I know you are slightly different, but do you have any conversation with other customer-facing organisations across Whitehall to examine whether you are using AI in similar and best practice ways? I was in the Cabinet Office before the election, and there was always a challenge to ensure …”

“ So you have a community of interest in this area?”

“ And then they have to backtrack.”

“ Okay. To return to the Chair’s line of questioning, the key debate that we have seen over recent weeks is how this change in inheritance tax relief will affect people and who it will affect. What I think I am hearing from you is that you do not really have definitions of those different classifications of farm; y…”

“ It would be helpful for the Committee to receive a letter from you or your colleagues setting out how roll-over relief works at the moment, and what you think it constitutes as a saving from CGT.”

“ So do I.”

“ On Monday, Pat McFadden, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, made a speech about the risks around cyber-attacks. We have seen Transport for London, for example, have some challenges. Given the growing emphasis that you are placing on digitalisation of services, how well equipped do you think HMRC is to deal…”

“Could I just ask about the alignment with the EU and the US? How do you feel about that? Sanctions regimes are enhanced when they are aligned, but different jurisdictions will occasionally have a different take on it. Could you describe how your work is impeded or affected by misalignment and what you or what Governmen…”

“Can I ask you about the nature of the secondees that you have in from the FCA, and probably the NCA as well? How does that work? I think the sense that some people have is that the Foreign Office broadly, as we know, makes the fundamental designation decisions, with advice from the Treasury about how that should or sho…”

“Do you need it?”