Speeches by Hatton.

“If it is three years out of date, you can appreciate why an individual might think that the HMRC perhaps has a slightly distorted understanding of how much time people spend administering their tax.”

“You currently calculate that the cost of customer time is £18.66 per hour. That is three years out of date now, so can we expect that to be to be refreshed to reflect how much time it might cost an individual to administer their own tax?”

“Moving the conversation on slightly from businesses to individual taxpayers, this report picks up the fact that, as it stands, HMRC does not maintain a model that estimates the cost impact of tax changes on individuals. Why is it that HMRC gives so much less attention to the cost to individuals of administering their t…”

“Just taking a slight step back from that and looking again at that figure of £15.4 billion a year in terms of the administrative burden on businesses, I have a really simple question. Why is the cost to business of complying with our tax system that high?”

“Reading over the NAO Report, I was struck by the figure for the administrative burden on businesses of £15.4 billion a year, and the fact that this is likely an underestimate and a very conservative figure. I also find quite stark a figure that was produced via a PQ that I did quite recently, which is that HMRC’s large…”

“For your replacement as the chief executive, it would be really important to see that loophole closed to enable the HMRC to do its job effectively.”

“In the correspondence, you mentioned the use of data taken from the register of overseas entities to identify and investigate where tax might be owed by a wealthy individual, yet we know that individuals often hide their ownership of a property on this register by holding it via a trust, often offshore as well. Given t…”

“It would be useful to know if there are any targets in the future in terms of how often these powers are used and how many criminal investigations you hope to bring. If there are any more details on targets or strategies that you are able to provide to the Committee in a written form, that would be very helpful.”

“I have two quick last questions. You have mentioned this already today, but in the correspondence that you shared with us, you did mention that there is a range of powers that HMRC has to tackle tax avoidance and evasion. Could you provide a bit more detail on how frequently these powers are used by HMRC? If you are ab…”

“We also know—and this was touched upon in our letter and the correspondence that you provided us—that some nefarious and wealthy individuals use a web of trusts, often offshore, to avoid sanctions and tax. Could you go into a bit more detail about how you plan to tackle the specific challenges posed by the use of trust…”

“Also in the correspondence, you highlight that investigating offshore tax evasion poses significant challenges—and you have made that point again today—due to the complexity of structures that are used by these wealthy individuals. In the letter, you made a specific point about tackling the accountants and the lawyers …”

“I have a couple of questions, so I will keep them as brief as I can, if that is all right. It would be good if we could keep the answers succinct, just so that we can get through them all and then move on to the wider session. Thank you for the correspondence. It was a useful starting point as to where HMRC is when it …”

“T5. Eden Portland is an exciting proposal for my community and, much like the Eden Project in Cornwall and Morecambe, it would be a hub for education and ecology. If delivered, it would boost investment and create well-paid jobs. I know that Ministers agree that this could be a real success story, so will they meet me …”

“I accept what you have said around this being a transition. It is a short agreement and it is very much a transition. Could you go into a bit more detail about what financial support might be given to other similar, large power stations beyond 2027? Secondly, it would still be helpful to understand how you reconcile th…”

“Do you accept that that might be a mistake?”

“You reached the agreement that you did in terms of how much public money would go towards subsidising Drax, but it does slightly worry me, and I am sure other members of the Committee, that that agreement was struck fairly recently, and yet this information came out just last week around them scaling back investment in…”

“Can you tell the Committee what you think the end point of that is likely to be? Lots of people on this Committee, I am sure, were quite shocked at what they read in the media last week around the fact that, despite this huge amount of public, taxpayer support, it is now backpedalling on its investment in greener techn…”

“In light of what has been since said by Drax, what work is the Department doing to try to offset some of that inevitable negative environmental impact that that is going to have? They are reducing the amount that they invest in greener technologies, in carbon capture and storage.”

“What are you doing to reduce non-compliance with those where they fall within the right criteria?”

“Is that not in direct contrast with what I raised earlier? Drax has said that it is reducing the amount that it invests in greener technologies.”