Speeches by Yang.

“Mr Wright, you spoke previously of the constant change in regulatory priorities over the last decade. How confident are you after hearing the Chancellor’s and other Ministers’ speeches on this topic that there will be more stability for the industry over the next 10 years?”

“You talk about this idea of reckless prudence. I understand that there has been a concern expressed by many panellists that we have now ratcheted up the amount of regulation. How would you say that the Government could avoid a business cycle of regulation where, once we start to remove that regulation, more risk is bor…”

“You talk about this idea of reckless prudence. I understand that there has been a concern expressed by many panellists that we have now ratcheted up the amount of regulation. How would you say that the Government could avoid a business cycle of regulation where, once we start to remove that regulation, more risk is bor…”

“Mr Wright, you spoke previously of the constant change in regulatory priorities over the last decade. How confident are you after hearing the Chancellor’s and other Ministers’ speeches on this topic that there will be more stability for the industry over the next 10 years?”

“On the broader point about how the industry affects lobbying, do you see any difference in the way that the Government—you mentioned politicians, Ms Concha—and, on the other hand, regulators listen to consumer concerns?”

“In the way politicians and the Government respond to, for example, constituents or consumer concerns expressed by groups like yours, versus the way that the FCA and other regulators deal with those concerns. Do you see much of a difference in those two areas?”

“ On assets held offshore, are you able to look at assets in other people’s names—for example, in the names of trusts or shell companies—or are you looking at only the specific people being considered in money laundering investigations?”

“ Sir Jim, just to follow on from those questions, you mentioned the really high rate of return from your compliance staff, and my colleague has just mentioned the line containing 5,000 additional compliance staff in this Budget. Could one simply keep on going? Would even more staff continue that high rate of retur…”

“ Another 5,000?”

“ Have we reached that point?”

“ Thank you.”

“ I have some questions about data collection and policy development in HMRC. The first is on the Taxes Management Act 1970, which was passed, of course, over 50 years ago. What have been the major changes in the tax policy environment since then, and what do you think are the largest shortcomings of that legislati…”

“ You talked about the challenge of having effective powers. My understanding is that the Taxes Management Act gives you the power to collect information relating to the enforcement of the current tax system but not to collect information that would help to inform future changes to the tax system. That might explai…”

“ According to law.”

“ After that review, was there a change to the way that you can proactively identify future data needs, or is it simply on a case-by-case basis? How is that now managed?”

“ Legally speaking, for you to have the power to collect the kind of data that you are speaking about, in real time, and any more practical data that you might need over the course of the next Parliament, is that a change that needs to be made in law, or is it something that can be done through a kind of agreement …”

“ You talk about the timeline of getting the data in, and, of course, we all know how time-pressured the Budget cycle can be. Do you ever receive policy suggestions that you feel you cannot cost or develop fully in the timeline of one Budget cycle? If so, what happens to those suggestions? Is there an agenda for wo…”

“ Do you ever get timed out by that process—as in, there are policies that are suggested but, because of the lack of data that you have, you cannot really do anything about it in the timespan?”

“ So that tax gap review includes assets held in other people’s names offshore?”

“I was wondering if different standards applied to that level of transparency in different cases. For example, the NCA does report the number of suspicious activity reports it receives relating to sanctions. You might consider that that might be seen as too big or too small. It is very difficult to understand how to jud…”