Speeches by Paul.

“Q14. In recent weeks Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6, has warned that conflict between Russia and the west is no longer coming; it has already come. With Russia poised to spend more than 6% of its GDP on its military next year, the time for reviews and road maps is over. Will the Prime Minister recognise t…”

“Thank you. I think we would all really welcome the work that you are doing on that, because we obviously appreciate the importance of that data. I am keen to validate my understanding of something and see whether you think it rings true, and what you think needs to happen if it is true. When I have spoken to various co…”

“I have one last question—or would you like me to move on, Chair?”

“We are seeing this issue with looked-after children who are out of area—exactly the same situation. It makes me wonder whether we should look at some kind of centralised co-ordination. I know that we have very much moved to this devolved model, but this can be the downside of that: when we do not have the central co-or…”

“I would like to declare that I am a county councillor at Surrey county council. I will move on to out-of-area placements. We know that some local authorities struggle to place households within their local area, and, according to the NAO Report, the number of households placed out of area rose from 23,450 in quarter 3 …”

“ Thank you. You mentioned the £6.5 billion reduction that you are trying to secure. How confident are you about delivering that? Also, given that the tax gap is an important measure and there is some subjectivity around some of the assumptions that will go into how you calculate that—for example, differences …”

“ I want to pull together all the different things we have been talking about today. We started talking about the tax gap and the importance of bringing that down. Clearly, addressing that gap and bringing it down is intrinsically linked to the customer service element, because the taxpayer needs help at the right …”

“ I would suggest that more notice is always better. For example, if I knew next week I was going to register for VAT, and for whatever reason I did not feel I was able to use the digital option, having more than two or three days’ notice would allow me to make the call at the right time to get that help. I would s…”

“ That is incredibly reassuring. Thank you for that. While I am talking about VAT, may I ask this? Obviously, right now you will have real-life pressures with respect to this. I expect you are getting an increase in VAT registration requests in the light of the change in rules that is coming—from various schools an…”

“ That is very helpful. Thank you so much.”

“ First, I declare that I am a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, and I am also a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation. Total revenues increased by £29.4 billion compared with 2022-23, which was largely driven by growth in revenue from income tax, reflecting the continu…”

“ You mentioned pensioners; they are a really good example. To bring this issue to life, can you talk us through what it means in practical terms when a pensioner is brought into paying tax, in terms of the additional work that HMRC has to do?”

“ This feels like quite a challenge for HMRC, because all these things add up, don’t they? Do you have the resources to cope with the increasing number of taxpayers?”

“ Thank you. I am going to move on to the tax gap. HMRC estimates that the tax gap—the difference between the amount of tax that should be paid to HMRC and what was actually paid—has increased from £38.1 billion to £39.8 billion. Obviously, there has been an announcement that we will try to close that gap; 5,000 co…”

“ What will their focus be, though? Obviously, closing loopholes is incredibly difficult—more difficult than people tend to realise—but helping the taxpayer not to make errors, and preventing problems before they arise, is easier. Will those 5,000 compliance staff be largely focused on helping taxpayers avoid makin…”

“ How are you going to measure success? Are you going to set some very specific targets and measure against them? Is that something that we would expect to see at some point?”

“ I asked about the measurement piece because it will be key to making sure the balance is right as well. When I look at the accounts, I can see that in statutory reviews of automated penalties and default surcharges, quite a low percentage—in 2023-24 only 26%—of HMRC original decisions were upheld. So as you bring…”

“ Thank you; that is really helpful. Moving on, the proportion of the tax gap made up by small businesses has increased every year from 37% to 60%, between 2017-18 and 2022-23. I am interested in your perspective on what you think has caused that and what can be done to try to reverse that trend.”

“I would say that flood risk on our roads is really important. It feeds into the point that I was making on the community infrastructure levy. That can be used for drainage improvements. When you are doing road maintenance, that is the ideal time to make sure that your drainage is sorted out. We really need to bring all…”

“It is quite a challenge, when we are already in a situation where our roads are not up to standard and we have potholes that are dangerous.”