Finance Bill

I thought that I had left VAT returns behind when I moved from business to politics, although as the Financial Secretary knows, I maintain a keen interest in VAT issues as HMRC has three main buildings in the constituency that I represent, two of which deal with VAT issues. With reference to my local VAT office, I have had a number of discussions about job cuts in HMRC, and from the Front Bench my hon. Friend the Member for South-West Hertfordshire (Mr. Gauke) expressed concerns about the impact of job cuts on already worrying performance figures. I support new clause 3 in particular, as it is right that we examine the performance figures in detail. My second point involves a recent constituency case. A constituent recently visited me who was concerned that an internet-based competitor was selling goods without paying any VAT. I wrote to the Financial Secretary, who took the matter extremely seriously, although for understandable reasons he wrote back to say that he could not correspond about a third company and reveal details. From my investigation of the matter, there seems to be concern in the industry that, because of carousel fraud, the performance figures of HMRC were adversely affected. That was affecting not only repayments and the processing of applications, but other fraud issues relating to VAT. I should appreciate reassurances from the Minister that non-carousel fraud is being investigated equally and that resources are not being sidetracked because of carousel fraud. Finally, in my discussions with a number of people about the case that I mentioned, concerns were raised that managed service companies are submitting thousands of new companies for VAT registration on a daily basis. Can the Financial Secretary allay my concerns or put a number on the VAT applications coming through daily and monthly? Will he confirm reports that up to 20,000 applications in bulk have been submitted to HMRC in one day? That would explain some of the performance figures and performance concerns.