Every parliamentary written question tabled by Lloyd Hatton this session, with the full answer and department. See how every department answers, or back to the MP page.
Showing 21–40 of 62 · this parliament
What steps he is taking to help support offshore wind supply chains in South Dorset constituency.
The Government set out a £1b support package with Great British Energy, The Crown Estate and industry supporting new infrastructure, including ports and manufacturing across the UK. GBE recently opened its £300m fund, to support manufacturing investment and deployment.
To please provide staff turnover figures for the Wealthy Team in HMRC for each financial year 2017/18 to 2024/25.
The table below provides the turnover rate, based on average Full Time Equivalent (FTE), for each year from 2021/22. Staff data is retained only for as long as it is required to meet its intended business purpose, after which it is securely deleted in line with HMRC’s data retention policy. The number of leavers includes staff leaving HMRC, moves to other Customer Compliance Group (CCG) directorates, moves outside of CCG and leavers within Wealthy and Mid-sized Business Compliance (WMBC). Tax year 21/22 includes moves to COVID schemes, whilst 24/25 included moves to other teams in Wealthy and Mid-sized Business Compliance, working on wealthy related risk. Tax YearTotal LeaversAverage FTE over yearTurnover rate2021/2225885630%2022/2315695116%2023/2413198813%2024/2516689818%
Whether the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has any formal policies or guidance aimed at preventing potential retaliation against whistleblowers who report wrongdoing to the SFO; and whether consideration has been given to developing structural protections against retaliation for whistleblowers following the government's Anti-Corruption Strategy launch event in December 2025.
The SFO has well established formal policies and guidance aimed at protecting whistleblowers who report allegations of criminality. All whistleblowers who report to the SFO are dealt with by appropriately trained, nationally NPCC accredited members of staff whose role is to engage with whistleblowers and understand what is required to protect these people from retaliation or harm of any kind. The SFOs whistleblowing handling processes have also been fully reviewed and strengthened over the past year to ensure that all reports continue to be handled in accordance with national guidance.The Government’s recently published Anti-Corruption Strategy commits to explore opportunities to reform the UK’s approach to whistleblowing in the employment context.
How many additional HMRC debt management staff she plans to recruit in each of the next five years.
The Government announced investment at the Budget in October 2024 and the Spring Statement in March 2025 to enable HMRC to recruit and retain 2,400 debt management officers in addition to growing by 5,500 compliance officers by 2029-30, with further funding for the former announced at the Budget in November 2025. This funding means that HMRC will retain 1,200 current Debt Management staff, who would have moved onto other roles, to focus on debt collection activity until the end of 2029-30 and will grow its workforce by 1,200 more people over this period. The majority of new recruits are funded from 2026-27, and all additional staff will be in position by 2028-29. HMRC is already well underway in recruiting 5,500 additional compliance officers who will join by the end of the decade. HMRC is welcoming around 2,000 total compliance officers each financial year, which includes baseline recruitment, an approximate 1,000 additional compliance officers funded by Government investment, and also accounts for anticipated attrition. Since November 2024, over 1,500 additional compliance officers have joined HMRC’s Customer Compliance Group (CCG).
What steps HMRC plans to take to increase the recruitment of compliance and debt management staff.
The Government announced investment at the Budget in October 2024 and the Spring Statement in March 2025 to enable HMRC to recruit and retain 2,400 debt management officers in addition to growing by 5,500 compliance officers by 2029-30, with further funding for the former announced at the Budget in November 2025. This funding means that HMRC will retain 1,200 current Debt Management staff, who would have moved onto other roles, to focus on debt collection activity until the end of 2029-30 and will grow its workforce by 1,200 more people over this period. The majority of new recruits are funded from 2026-27, and all additional staff will be in position by 2028-29. HMRC is already well underway in recruiting 5,500 additional compliance officers who will join by the end of the decade. HMRC is welcoming around 2,000 total compliance officers each financial year, which includes baseline recruitment, an approximate 1,000 additional compliance officers funded by Government investment, and also accounts for anticipated attrition. Since November 2024, over 1,500 additional compliance officers have joined HMRC’s Customer Compliance Group (CCG).
How much and what proportion of the wealthy tax gap HMRC attributes to (a) Capital Gains Tax and (b) Inheritance Tax for each financial year from 2017-18 to 2024-25.
Wealthy tax gap estimates are published in Measuring the Tax Gap 2025 for 2005-06 to 2023-24. There are no estimates for 2024-25 at this time, these will be published in future tax gap publications. We use Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax (CGT) and National Insurance Contributions (NICs) data in our estimate of the Self-Assessment (SA) wealthy tax gap. It is not possible to separately estimate the CGT share within this tax gap. We are therefore unable to provide the details for CGT. The overall wealthy tax gap, detailed in Chapter 1 Figure 1.4 of MTG25 and Table 1.4 of the online tables, breaks down as follows: (£ billion)2017/182018/192019/202020/212021/222022/232023/24Self-Assessment1.431.351.341.231.671.781.95Inheritance Tax0.200.190.190.100.200.120.15Stamp Duties0.020.050.050.040.040.050.04Net Gap1.651.591.581.371.921.952.13 Or as a percentage share of the overall wealthy tax gap: (£ billion)2017/182018/192019/202020/212021/222022/232023/24Self-Assessment86.7%85.0%84.7%90.0%87.2%91.6%91.3%Inheritance Tax11.9%12.1%12.1%7.1%10.5%6.0%6.9%Stamp Duties1.4%2.9%3.2%2.9%2.3%2.4%1.7%
What the total compliance yield generated by HMRC’s Wealthy Team was in each financial year between 2017-18 and 2024-25.
The table below shows the compliance yield attributed to the wealthy customer group, which includes yield generated by HMRCs Wealthy Team. HMRC does not hold the figures for 2017-18. We have provided details from the earliest period available in the table below:- Annual Report figures2018-192019-202020-212021-222022-232023-242024-25Compliance Yield (£m)1,8002,2003,0002,5004,0005,2003,700 Compliance yield for the wealthy population can fluctuate year on year because it can be impacted by the nature of the work and risks being settled as well as the settlement of a small number of complex, high value cases and litigation outcomes. Complex cases can take time to work through which can lead to yearly fluctuations.
Whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of low-cost imported stone on the competitiveness of UK natural stone producers; and what steps he is taking to help support the natural stone industry.
The Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) is the UK’s investigatory body that exists to defend the UK against unfair international trade practices, including foreign subsidies. I encourage UK industry to engage directly with the TRA if they believe they are being injured by unfair trading practices as it will be for the TRA to decide whether evidentiary thresholds to initiate a trade remedies investigation are met. The Department remains vigilant to any reports of potential injury to industries from unfair trading practices and regularly engages with the natural stone sector.
Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to expand the Bathing Water (Amendment) (England and Wales) Regulations 2025 to apply to all recreational water users.
Bathing waters are one of the most visible ways in which the public interacts with the water environment, and so it is critical that appropriate regulations meet the needs of water users and those involved with managing bathing water sites. In the November – December 2024 consultation on bathing water reforms, we asked respondents about wider reforms including the expansion of the definition of ‘bathers’ to include other water users and introducing multiple monitoring points at sites. The Government response to the consultation, published in March 2025, outlined that a clear majority of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed with this proposal and many offered suggestions of what water users should be included. The Department is now exploring how evidence to support the delivery of these wider reforms, including expanding the definition of a bather might be developed. The timeline for detailed policy development and research will depend on the outcome of initial scoping work. Defra will engage with local and national stakeholders as this work progresses.
What steps her Department will take to ensure transparency in the operation of HMRC's proposed whistleblowing reward scheme; and whether she plans to publish (a) eligibility criteria and award thresholds for applicants, and (b) data on the number and value of awards granted.
At Autumn Budget on 26 November 2025 the Government launched the Rewards for informants of high value tax fraud. This scheme is designed to target serious non-compliance involving large corporates, wealthy individuals, offshore and avoidance schemes. Informants can receive a reward of between 15 and 30% when they provide information which leads directly to HMRC collecting more than £1.5M tax. HMRC have published eligibility criteria for the scheme at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/reporting-serious-tax-avoidance-and-evasion. HMRC has previously published data on the total amount of rewards paid annually through the standard informants reward scheme and will continue to do so. To protect the confidentiality of informants we do not publish the number of rewards or size of individual rewards.
Whether the Treasury plans to introduce additional protections for individuals who face retaliation as a result of engaging with the HMRC whistleblowing reward scheme; and whether HMRC will be required to provide support to whistleblowers involved in employment disputes or SLAPP-type legal proceedings arising from their disclosures.
HMRC treats all informants with the highest levels of confidentiality and security in line with the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000 and the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) Codes of Practice. There is no legal obligation on HMRC to participate in an employment tribunal of an informant. However, if requested, HMRC can provide a disclosure to the informant or their legal representative to support any employment tribunal under Sec 18 (2)(c) Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005.
How many of the 74 HMRC engagement forums are involved in developing tax policy; and what is the composition of those stakeholder groups, including the proportion of tax practitioners compared to academics or independent experts.
The majority of HMRC’s engagement forums play a role in contributing to the development of tax policy, as well as addressing other key areas such as operations, compliance and communications. These forums bring together a diverse mix of representatives from professional bodies, other representative organisations, tax practitioners and independent experts.
What progress she has made on implementing the cross-system professional enablers strategy.
Professional enablers are a critical facilitator of serious and organised crime. In April 2024, the NCA’s National Economic Crime Centre (NECC) launched a cross-system strategy to tackle the threat posed by professional enablers; and steps taken towards that goal since include the following:- The NECC is working closely with professional body supervisors, statutory supervisors, policing and other system partners to improve information sharing between agencies.- The NECC is co-chairing the Europol Financial Intelligence Public Private Partnership (EFIPPP) work stream on professional enablers to improve intelligence with international partners.- Work is underway to create a comprehensive guide on professional enablers that will support operational teams and supervisors.- And there is further ongoing work to build a stronger evidence base around professional enablers through NCA/NECC research and analysis.
How many disclosure orders under the Proceeds of Crime Act the National Crime Agency has (a) sought and (b) been granted in each of the last three years.
The NCA has several well-established powers under Part 8 (investigations) of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, which they may use to compel information during an investigation including production orders, customer information orders and disclosure orders. These allow relevant law enforcement agencies to obtain information on property, individuals and customer details in support of investigations.The use of these powers remains an operational decision which will be taken on a case by case basis by the relevant law enforcement body and the Home Office does not hold central data on the extent of their use.
What steps her Department is taking to support school-based nurseries.
School-based nurseries are a key part of this government’s opportunity mission, delivering on our Plan for Change by expanding high-quality early education across our brilliant early years market in England. 300 schools have been awarded up to £150,000 to repurpose their unused space to open or expand a school-based nursery, totalling £37 million. This funding will create up to 6,000 new childcare places, most of which are expected to be available from September 2025. This is a first step to making more childcare places available and accessible so parents can take-up the funded childcare they are entitled to. These new and expanded nurseries will help boost access to quality childcare and early years education.The department has published guidance for schools on setting up a high-quality early years learning environment and are exploring what further support can be provided to successful schools who may be new to early years provision. The department is also delivering programmes to support the sector to attract talented staff and childminders by creating conditions for improved recruitment, alongside programmes to better utilise the skills of the existing workforce. We are working closely with the early years sector and local authorities to develop the next steps to achieving this manifesto commitment.
How many (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions of companies for money laundering there were under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 in the last five years.
The number of companies and public bodies prosecuted for the principal offence of money laundering under POCA 2002 has fluctuated between 1 and 5 each year between the year ending June 2019 and the year ending June 2024. The number of companies and public bodies convicted for the principal offence of money laundering under POCA 2002 has fluctuated between 0 and 5 each year between the year ending June 2019 and the year ending June 2024. Money laundering prosecutions and convictions of companies and public bodies under POCA and Money Laundering Regulation’s 2007 (principal offence)Year ending June 2019Year ending June 2020Year ending June 2021Year ending June 2022Year ending June 2023Year ending June 2024Proceeded against155351Convicted510312 To note, a small proportion of defendant types are also recorded as ‘unknown’ each year (not included in figures in table). Source: Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: June 2024 - GOV.UK
How many of the trusts registered with the Trusts Registration Service hold UK land or property.
I can only provide a partial answer to these questions, as the information held on the Trust Registration Service in relation to land and property holdings varies depending on the category of registration. Additionally, the Trust Registration Service does not record information on indirect holdings of land by trustees.From May 2021 (when the Trust Registration Service was expanded to accept registrations from non-taxable trusts) to 5 April 2024 (the end of the last tax year), c.56,000 trusts notified the Trust Registration Service that the trustees have acquired a direct interest in UK land or property on or after 6 October 2020. Of this figure, c.55,000 are UK resident trusts (including trusts categorised as ‘Type A') and c.1000 are non-UK resident trusts (including trusts categorised as ‘Type B’ or ‘Type C’).Taxable trusts, including those registered before May 2021, are required to provide a statement of assets held at the time of registration, including UK land or property. However, analysing this information to arrive at a total number and value of land and property assets held by these trusts would carry a disproportionate cost.
How many trusts registered with the Trusts Registration Service hold UK land or property via a type (a) A, (b) B and (c) C trust.
I can only provide a partial answer to these questions, as the information held on the Trust Registration Service in relation to land and property holdings varies depending on the category of registration. Additionally, the Trust Registration Service does not record information on indirect holdings of land by trustees.From May 2021 (when the Trust Registration Service was expanded to accept registrations from non-taxable trusts) to 5 April 2024 (the end of the last tax year), c.56,000 trusts notified the Trust Registration Service that the trustees have acquired a direct interest in UK land or property on or after 6 October 2020. Of this figure, c.55,000 are UK resident trusts (including trusts categorised as ‘Type A') and c.1000 are non-UK resident trusts (including trusts categorised as ‘Type B’ or ‘Type C’).Taxable trusts, including those registered before May 2021, are required to provide a statement of assets held at the time of registration, including UK land or property. However, analysing this information to arrive at a total number and value of land and property assets held by these trusts would carry a disproportionate cost.
How many (a) land and (b) property assets are held through UK trusts registered with the Trust Registration Services; and what the aggregate value is of (i) land and (ii) property assets held via trusts.
I can only provide a partial answer to these questions, as the information held on the Trust Registration Service in relation to land and property holdings varies depending on the category of registration. Additionally, the Trust Registration Service does not record information on indirect holdings of land by trustees.From May 2021 (when the Trust Registration Service was expanded to accept registrations from non-taxable trusts) to 5 April 2024 (the end of the last tax year), c.56,000 trusts notified the Trust Registration Service that the trustees have acquired a direct interest in UK land or property on or after 6 October 2020. Of this figure, c.55,000 are UK resident trusts (including trusts categorised as ‘Type A') and c.1000 are non-UK resident trusts (including trusts categorised as ‘Type B’ or ‘Type C’).Taxable trusts, including those registered before May 2021, are required to provide a statement of assets held at the time of registration, including UK land or property. However, analysing this information to arrive at a total number and value of land and property assets held by these trusts would carry a disproportionate cost.
If she will publish the agenda for the meeting with Crown Dependencies on 3 March 2025.
We publish all Ministerial meetings in our quarterly transparency returns.We do not routinely publish the agenda or minutes of such meetings. publish the agenda or minutes of such meetings.