Speeches by Caliskan.

“Could one of the factors be that there are fewer penalties being issued to the super rich?”

“I just want to be clear, and I am not making a value statement here. It does not concern you, as an organisation, that almost half of the compliance investigations close in no yield. That is because, for instance, it might be that you have investigated and there is no reason. I am just trying to get a sense of whether …”

“We know how many people there are on PAYE, for instance.”

“I am glad that the spending review was a positive outcome for HMRC. We will be watching tightly the procurement process so that can be swiftly implemented.”

“I am pleased that there has been some movement and it sounds like there will be some change. Very finally, we heard from HMRC that one of the challenges with speaking to customers is the security of being able to exchange communication and customers being able to send you documents, for example. We did not understand w…”

“I am pleased to hear that, because, of all the things we heard, that was the one I think Members were most exercised about. It is one thing having to wait more than half an hour on the phone, but then being cut off after you have spent an hour is quite poor customer service.”

“The speed at which a phone call is answered is very important. There is a strong sense from this Committee that it was an important target, particularly because it was the case that, after 60 minutes, over 40,000 people had been cut off. I think that it was just in an 11-month period. I am unclear whether that is still…”

“Do you have a target then, but you are just not willing to say it publicly?”

“John-Paul, you referred to a 10-minute average waiting time. Therefore there has been an improvement, because the average core waiting time when you spoke to the Committee previously was a 23-minute wait.”

“What is the percentage at the moment?”

“Thank you to panel members for joining the session. As some background for context, members of the Committee and panel members will recall that, in the Public Accounts Committee’s January 2025 report on HMRC’s customer service accounts, the Committee concluded that there were some issues with the telephone services and…”

“I have constituents in Barking who are living in properties and paying housing charges that go to a company owned by individuals living in offshore tax havens. They are getting ripped off through these charges, so they really want HMRC to go after individuals who should be paying their fair share of tax, which is why i…”

“Is there a relationship between the length of time that it takes to complete these cases and the yield? In your assessment or your understanding, is there a trend that can be identified, or is that simply just not the case?”

“That does not mean, though, that it is a good formula.”

“Hypothetically, if the waiting time suddenly shoots up to 100 weeks next year, how, as a Member of Parliament, will I know if I should go to the House of Commons and say to the Minister, “This is unacceptable”?”

“If you take the other end, you are assuming that individuals are not trying to just flee the country. We have also been told by professional bodies that, for lots of wealthy individuals and their agents, the length of time that it is taking for their cases to be resolved is highly frustrating for them. It is hindering …”

“Why has it grown? If you were doing investigations and they were taking 27 months, why is it now taking 40 months?”

“That is really helpful. I want to ask about the length of time, but is there something that you wanted to come in with before then, Lloyd?”

“Why? What has happened? Is it the resourcing?”

“I want to come back to the length of time, because there are some risks associated with the length of time being so long. If I could quickly talk about the targeting of investigations to cases where non-compliance is happening, has that improved as an organisation? Can you point to one or two things that the organisati…”