Speeches by Yang.

“Just to be clear, to Mr Wright, in those cases, if they were to happen in the next year or so, is your preference that there would be an attitude from the Government and regulators that some people had fallen victim to those problems?”

“It is fair to say that this panel has some differences in view from the previous panel of industry representatives. How well matched do you feel in lobbying power and getting the ear of the regulator, compared with those industry lobbyists?”

“To get into the particular example of the lowering of the limit for authorised push payment refunds for consumers—for those who have transferred money to fraudsters, essentially—that has now been taken down to about a fifth of what it was, with the limit now £85,000. Does anyone want to comment on that process?”

“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?”

“ 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?”

“ 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?”

“ Have we reached that point?”

“ Thank you.”

“ 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…”

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

“ Another 5,000?”

“ 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 …”

“To get a sense of that term, what would count as low value?”

“I would like to transport us to the overseas territories and Crown dependencies, figuratively speaking. I note the Joint Ministerial Council communique from a few days ago, which describes addressing the sanctions vulnerabilities across the overseas territories and improving sanctions co-operation between the UK and th…”