HMRC Closures

The hon. Gentleman makes a series of valid points, and they are valid for the whole range of site...

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for securing this important debate on a subject that matters ...

Indeed. That is the argument that I will come on to make. Centralising those jobs in city centres...

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that it would help if, at the very least, some research was done in...

I agree entirely. In a nutshell, that is the point of my speech. We have an opportunity now to pa...

Does my hon. Friend agree that it is extremely disappointing that the UK Government decided to re...

I happily join my hon. Friend in making that call of the Minister. In essence, there are strong r...

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies. I congratulate the hon. Member for ...

I want to make one central point, which is to do with the eight location principles that the Reve...

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that there should have been an assessment of the social and economi...

That was going to be my next central point. It seems very negligent that such social and economic...

I thank my hon. Friend for being so generous in giving way. The Government and the previous Gover...

I have studied the eight points carefully, and there does not seem to be any rural proofing, whic...

It is an absolute pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies. I am extremely grateful t...

This is a really important debate. To provide some context, the HMRC office in my constituency cl...

My hon. Friend makes his point, as always, very eloquently. He mentioned Brexit, and another angl...

That is a good point. One of the biggest gaps in the whole Brexit conversation is not only the tr...

The hon. Gentleman raises an important point. Does he agree that local knowledge is vital and tha...

The hon. Gentleman makes a very fair point. The relationships among other local service providers...

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies. I thank the hon. Member for Cumbern...

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies. May I put on the record my apprecia...

Does my hon. Friend agree that the consistent message that value for money reviews were not carri...

As always, my hon. Friend is absolutely right. These issues are arising with increasing consisten...

The hon. Gentleman talks about people in ivory towers. Is it not ironic that people who are made ...

I absolutely agree; the hon. Gentleman makes a fine point.

As the hon. Gentleman mentioned, connectivity is key. I represent a constituency that is not so w...

Absolutely; I agree. I was coming to that very point and to the point made by my hon. Friend the ...

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Davies. Like other hon. Members, I thank you for you...

Does the hon. Gentleman agree with my suspicion that the end was decided before the criteria that...

I do, and I think it has been driven by cost. One other area is that while I and my hon. Friends ...

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that recent figures show that unpaid tax is at a record low, so som...

I will meet the hon. Gentleman half way. I do not believe that unpaid taxes are at a new low. In ...

Does the hon. Gentleman agree with me that, with the combination of Brexit and the devolution of ...

I agree with the hon. Gentleman. The next question is rather obvious: “Where are all these staff ...

It is a pleasure to serve under your stewardship, Mr Davies. Where do we begin with this situatio...

The issue of making decisions during purdah has already been raised. It is right and proper that ...

I take the Minister’s point, but there is always an issue in government.

I listened to the Minister’s intervention. Does the shadow Minister agree that it is somewhat iro...

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. Some of them cost an arm and a leg. The Minister should t...

I am afraid that I do not buy the Minister’s explanation at all. The delays to the lease being co...

My hon. Friend makes an excellent and valid point. The Government should think those sorts of thi...

May I say what a pleasure it is to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies? I know this is an im...

I do not think anybody disagrees with the Minister on the collection of tax, but that is all the ...

A number of Members in the debate raised the costs mentioned in the National Audit Office report,...

On value for money, I happen to agree with a number of points made about the opportunity here to ...

The hon. Gentleman makes two points. One is a general point about the economic sense, or otherwis...

I am not sure whether the Minister’s tactic is to talk at length about matters on which there is ...

The hon. Gentleman is right: much of the debate has focused on the matters to which he refers. I ...

Everyone in the Chamber is in favour of much of the approach to digitalisation of the tax process...

I do not accept that point. We could take it to its logical conclusion and assume that everyone c...

Could I ask the Minister two questions, then? First, on the criteria for where to locate the offi...

On the latter point—the specific query— I will have to get back to the hon. Gentleman, but on the...

rose—

Could I just make one other point? The relocation does not necessarily mean that all the employee...

I thank the Minister for giving way again. Can he confirm whether the Department will publish an ...

We are not publishing the kind of impact assessment that the hon. Gentleman suggests, but my poin...

Is the Minister seriously suggesting that Manchester city centre, 7 miles away from Oldham town c...

The hon. Gentleman will appreciate that I have not come here prepared with all the precise detail...

On that basis, can the Minister confirm today that the Department will release that location asse...

No. I am not going to commit to bringing forward all sorts of reports and things that various hon...

Does the Minister agree that one of the most important areas that needs an assessment in these pr...

That prompts the question of what the overarching purpose of HMRC is: to provide customer service...

The Minister has referred to the eight criteria on numerous occasions. I am trying to get my head...

The criteria are there to allow a balanced judgment across the eight criteria as to where the bes...

The Minister’s colleagues in Departments such as the Department for International Development fee...

As the hon. Lady knows, a transition office will be kept in East Kilbride; it would certainly not...

We do not doubt that an assessment has been made. We simply want to see for ourselves that object...

The hon. Gentleman has asked precisely the same question that the hon. Member for Bootle (Peter D...

The Minister is being extraordinarily generous in giving way. Is he not at all concerned about cr...

The hon. Gentleman raises the issue of crowding out private sector investment, but I am primarily...

Can the Minister explain how closing HMRC offices, with a lack of local knowledge, helps to bridg...

The corollary to that argument is that we might better close the tax gap by opening another sever...

The Minister is being very kind with his time today. He talks about the need for regional

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The answer is similar to the one I gave the hon. Member for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmaha...

The Minister is being more than generous. Can he confirm that there are currently 400 employees i...

It depends. The hon. Gentleman’s question begs another question, which is what exactly he means b...

It is a specific department.

If it is a specific department—I am sure it is—I am happy to get back to him on that point. I wil...

I thank the Minister for giving way. According to my time, we have an hour and 10 minutes of inte...

That is the third time that basic question has been asked, and I am not going to give a different...

The Minister said that the vast majority of people who will transfer are within reasonable distan...

I shall get back to the hon. Gentleman on precisely what that means. I suspect it is a travel-to-...

Can the Minister confirm that the original criterion for reasonable travel distance that was used...

I shall give the hon. Gentleman the same answer I gave to the hon. Member for Stockton South (Dr ...

I thank the Minister for giving way; he is being generous in that regard, at least. Are the cost ...

The cost savings are for an investment of £552 million over 10 years. Firstly, they arise through...

On cost savings, can the Minister provide an explanation of why, during purdah, a contract was si...

As the hon. Gentleman knows, the criteria applied in taking the decision were not simply about co...

Will the Minister give way?

This must be about my 30th intervention; I am delighted to give way to the shadow Minister.

The Minister is being incredibly generous with his time. The question of the criteria goes to the...

Order. We have just over an hour left, but I remind hon. Members that interventions should be sho...

Thank you, Mr Stringer. I should agree with the hon. Member for Bootle if the premise of his asse...

On a point of order, Mr Stringer. The Minister has said a number of times that an assessment has ...

That is a matter of fact, not a point of order relating to the debate.

rose—

I give way to the hon. Gentleman.

I shall write to the Minister about this; but the bottom line is that when I asked senior officer...

We can go round and round this for some time, but HMRC has a very clear set of criteria. It has l...

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Stringer. The Minister has not yet mentioned the min...

It is the duty of HMRC to ensure the minimum wage is adhered to and that it is rigorous and robus...

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Stringer. I thank all hon. Members for their contrib...